BOOK REVIEW: Every Time We Say Goodbye by Natalie Jenner

 I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

Every Time We Say Goodbye by Natalie Jenner continues in the post-WWII setting of her previous novels, The Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls. The current protagonist Vivien Lowry was one of the bookshop girls we met in book two, a writer with a tragic past. Her fiancé, David St. Vincent, the heir to an earldom, had been killed in the war.

When Vivien’s stage play flops in London, she escapes to Rome where she has been offered a job as a script doctor for a floundering movie at the Cinecittà studio. This world-famous studio was created by Mussolini as a propaganda machine and was then taken over by the Nazis. Now, in 1955, the studio is reviving, producing commercial films to international acclaim. A large number of American ex-pats, Hollywood-types escaping the restrictions and dangers of McCarthyism, have come to Rome to work at Cinecittà. Vivien is eager to work with these creative men and women.

She has another reason to come to Rome. She has just learned from her deceased fiancé’s sister that David did not die in a crash in Italy. He was reported missing in action and was likely a prisoner of war. At least for a little while. Vivien is certain he’s not still alive; he would have made his way home to her. But she’s desperate to learn the truth of what happened to him, and thinks she might discover more if she is physically in Italy rather than London.

While in Italy, she makes new friends, has a love affair, and struggles with the restrictions placed on moviemakers by the all-powerful Catholic Church. She also pulls strings to learn about David’s captivity.

Vivien’s story is interspersed with chapters about La Scolaretta, “the Schoolgirl,” a member of the Italian Resistance and a very successful assassin. 

The storylines merge in a poignant way. Fans of Jenner’s historical women’s fiction, especially those wondering “what next?” for the Bloomsbury Girls, should love this novel. I particularly enjoyed the atmosphere – post-WWII Italy is an unusual setting for me and Jenner does a great job of immersing the reader in the time and place.