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Naples '44

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Naples '44

By: Norman Lewis
Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton
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About this listen

Naples '44 is an unflinching autobiographical account of a year in Naples after the armistice and Allied landings in Sorrento in 1943.

Working as a British counterintelligence officer under the Allied occupation, Lewis documents the rich pageant of life in the city and its surrounding areas. There is suffering and squalor: Criminal gangs are on the rise, along with typhus and black market commerce, and the female population is forced into part-time prostitution, simply to obtain food. Corruption is rife as a Genovese crime family member makes his way into the US army administration, and local hospitals, short on supplies, buy equipment back from those who stole it. There is farce and humor, too, witnessed in the Roman uncle paid handsomely simply to appear at funerals and lend an air of gravitas, and in Lewis's own experience of vetting proposed marriages between British soldiers and local women. Unsparing, penetrating and profoundly humane, Naples '44 is a moving portrait of the costs of war, and the resilience of a society under extreme stress.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©1978 Norman Lewis (P)2019 Naxos Audiobooks Europe Italy Military Military & War World World War II War Witty
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This book recalls a number of episodes and people seen through the eyes of a British intelligence officer in occupied southern Italy in 1944. I understand these events are true. It is a fond but shocking recollection of really hard times, well written. The author gets into people’s minds and the culture of the time.

Full and Balanced View of Napoli in 1944

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I realise that this book was written some time ago. However the way that Lewis writes underlies the tragedy of the occupation by the allied troops with all the corruption and mal administration. It is difficult to comprehend the suffering of local inhabitants especially at the hands of the corrupt US troops. It is indeed ironic that Mussolini had nearly wiped out the local Mafia only for it burgeon under US troops of Italian background. Corruption didn’t change in Vietnam, Iraq and more recently Afghanistan. So much for US democracy.

Truly excellent

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