Could a woman make it as a war correspondent in 1917?

When journalist Rebecca Quinn leaves the comforts of her middle-class Sydney home with her husband Jack to become war correspondents in World War I, she is hoping to leave behind the stereotype of the female journalist who can only report and write about fashion and family.

With a Suffragette for a mother, Rebecca has an independent streak and the ambition to succeed as a war correspondent in her own right. On arrival in the seaside town of Brindisi in Italy, she envisions a working collaboration with her husband Jack as they both work to send news reports from Europe to Australia.

However, Jack has gone off on a dangerous mission with some Albanian smugglers to follow a breaking story and left her alone. A Letter from Italy by Pamela Hart is a story of one woman’s fight to gain credence in her own right in a world dominated by men.

It is through the eyes of American/Italian photographer Alessandro Pannuci, (aka Al Baker) that we first encounter Rebecca’s grief at her husband’s abandoning her when she visits a picturesque cathedral. He is an Italian-American back in Italy for the duration of the war. Struck by her beauty, he photographs her, and in spite of his protestations that it was for art, she is angry that he has done it without her consent.

It’s an uneasy start to a relationship, but as Rebecca is not allowed to attend the male-only press conference gatherings, she needs a male to be her eyes and ears. Alessandro is the perfect choice, and although she initially has misgivings regarding his lack of wearing a uniform to serve his country, she joins in a partnership of sorts with him so that she can write her own news stories and have them sent away to Australia.

What follows is a friendship of grudging mutual trust and hard work as Rebecca gets to understand Alessandro better. He is a part-time waiter in his grandmother’s restaurant, and Rebecca spends time with Nona Rosa learning more of the Italian language.

As a team, they go on assignments and gather information to send the stories and photographs back to Australia, in spite of the locals and other war correspondents displeasure. In a strongly patriarchal country, Rebecca’s independence is seen as a threat as she becomes more entrenched in the community. The men fear her influence upon the younger women as she encourages them to fight for the right to vote and to choose whom they marry.

The story inevitably becomes a love story of sorts, as Jack is revealed to be quite a different man to what she had first thought. It is only when she and Alessandro are on a frighteningly dangerous mission to be the first to get the scoop on a story breaking in Venice that she finally understands her feelings that have been growing for Alessandro.

This is a love story and a war story. A story of a brave and intelligent young woman who is determined to follow her passion and be taken seriously as a journalist. She learns that she has compassion and empathy for those in the war-torn country as the Austrian Army advances, and it is this compassion which gives her stories a unique perspective from those of her male colleagues. 

The ending is unexpected, but A Letter from Italy by award-winning author Pamela Hart is sure to please. The narrative flows easily, the descriptions and characters are engaging and the plot has the perfect amount of tension. It is her thirteenth novel to date.

A Letter from Italy by Pamela Hart (published by Hachette Australia) is available now from Dymocks. Click here to learn more.