Every Time We Say Goodbye follows Vivien Lowery who readers first met in Bloomsbury Girls. After her latest London play receives negative reviews, Vivien travels to Rome to find both a new start and a closure for old heartbreaks. This novel is set during the film heyday that Italy enjoyed in the 1950s. American screenwriters, directors, and actors enjoyed a kind of freedom not found during the McCarthy-era witch hunts in Hollywood. But with this “freedom” comes a new kind of censorship from the Catholic church. I found this thread of the novel interesting, and real-life Hollywood stars make their appearances, giving the novel a touch of glitz and glamour. But it is the second plot line that I found the most intriguing. The reader is introduced to the Italian resistance fighters of WWII. I found the fabricated fairytale lives of those in the film making industry an insightful backdrop to the selflessness of those who sacrificed so much. There is so much contradiction — those wanting to forget or tidy up the past and those who want to expose it in all its harsh reality. In the end the novel is one of finding purpose and truth in a world that seems only to want a perfect storybook ending.

Fans of Jenner’s earlier novels and those who love historical fiction set in the mid-20th century will not want to miss this book!

Recommended.

Audience: Adults.

(Thanks to NetGalley for a complimentary copy. All opinions expressed are mine alone.) ( )

Compelling!

Jenner continues exploring the lives of various of characters we’ve met in the “Austen Society” and “Bloomsbury Girls.” This time the action is mostly set in post World War II Rome. Vivien Lowrey is a playwright. Through her works she tries to capture the truth of things. Having been savaged by theatre critics for her latest production she comes to Rome to work as a script doctor for “When All Else Fails” a Douglas Curtis film being produced in Italy.
Joseph McCarthy has started his witch hunts for communist and socialists in the film industry and many have fled here. Mussolini had built a huge studio complex in Rome specifically for propaganda. Now, in 1955, Cinecittà Studios is being well used by the Italian and other film makers, including the Americans.
Vivien catches up with others of the Austen and Bloomsbury women who flit in and out of the story, including Peggy Guggenheim.
The names! I’m starry eyed! Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida, Anna Magnani, Orson Wells, Eartha Kitt!
The story is complex. Layers upon layers build up a picture of Vivian and those around her. Vivien had been engaged to David St. Vincent, heir to an earldom. David had been captured in North Africa, then sent to Italy, escaped and then disappeared. Vivian had always believed he was dead. When she finds out he’d lived, she has hope. That’s part of her reason for coming to Italy.
In Rome she learns the story of many in the Italian underground, particularly the women. One was La Scolaretta, girlfriend of underground leader Prince Nino Tremonti, now filmmaker. La Scolaretta became an assassin. She was helped by an Italian nun, Sister Justina. Their reasons for helping are different, but their bravery and resistance is awe inspiring.
A film is to be made about Scolaretta. The Vatican shuts it down!
The Vatican comes under fire. Where were they during the time when the country was occupied by the Nazis. Did they seek to hold onto power at any cost?
Meanwhile the search for news of David and for others comes to the fore for Vivien. During her search Vivien faces facts about her own life.
As she and her friend Gabriella Giacometti discuss when Claudia (a reporter for Life Magazine) moves onto a new life, “Our secrets are who we really are.”
A deeply moving story of loss and gain, of power abused, and of a time in history that has stained generations.

A St. Martins Press ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.
Please note: Quotes taken from an advanced reading copy maybe subject to change ( )

After a dramatic breakthrough in Vivien Lowry's career in London, she starts working as a melodrama screenwriter at the Cinecitta Studios cinema in Rome. Changes to the script may bring Vivien success she wouldn’t be able to achieve in London. At the same time, she can look for information about her fiancé, whom she lost during World War II. Vivien, who has not found a second love after her fiancé, gets involved with producer John Lassiter. However, Lassiter is not divorced, he is still very close to his wife and very attached to their adopted daughter. There are secrets behind this that will be revealed along with the other secrets of the characters in this book.

This is another book from which I learned something new. I didn't know that the Church had a huge influence on the Italian film industry and that the censorship was very excessive.

It was a good story, but I lost track somewhere and got disconnected. I wanted to like this book so much more than I did. The ending was better than I expected, and I found the setting in the world of Italian cinema very interesting.

This book was about discoveries and bringing peace after the hardships of war. I would like to read another book by this author. ( )

The Jane Austen Society series just keeps getting better and better with each new entry. This one follows a secondary character from the previous book into completely new territory, the post WWII Italian movie industry. While I did miss the Chawton and Bloomsbury Books crew at first, it didn’t take long until I was drawn into the goings‑on at the Cinecittà film studio and the surrounding city of Rome. This has a backstory that ties it to the Italian resistance movement during the war and it continues another war related matter from England that I hope to read more of in next book.

My thanks to Goodreads Giveaways and the publisher for an advance copy to review. ( )

Vivian is a screen writer in London when she decides to travel to Rome Italy to escape the harsh criticism from her latest one woman play. It is 1955 in the post WWII years and Vivian takes a job as a script doctor in the bustling new movie making machine in Rome’s Cinecitta Studios. Here she meets many up and coming actors and it was fun hearing the names dropped of such actors like Sophia Loren. But Vivian also has another very personal reason for her trip to Italy. It is where her fiancé disappeared and was presumed dead during the war. She still has a smidgeon of hope that he might be alive and she goes looking for him. In the midst of her search trying to mend her broken heart she meets many interesting people, most are scarred by the recent war and as she opens herself up to what really happened in Italy she begins to finally heal. This was a sad yet moving novel that I enjoyed very much. The information regarding the power the Vatican had over movie scripts and what was allowed to be filmed was quite and eye opener for me, the church controlled everything. Highly recommended.

Many thanks to Net Galley and Macmillan Audio for a chance to read/listen to the audio version of this ARC audiobook. ( )