War in Val d'Orcia

A remarkably moving document that, like the best of the elemental war stories, eventually becomes a statement about the unplanned nature and folly of war * New York Times *
A compelling story of heroism [and] compassion * Washington Post *
A remarkable war diary * Telegraph *
It is jolting to recall, through Origo's sober and self-effacing prose, the atrocious conditions of the summer of 1944 * Financial Times *
In her biographies she was able to write precisely on the cusp between the two cultures, turning her work into a bridge of interpretation and understanding -- Tessa Hadley * London Review of Books *
Relates in vivid detail the experiences of civilians who had the terrible misfortune to find themselves pinned between battling armies... beyond doubt a minor masterpiece * Washington Post *
A welcome rediscovery - evoking a unique, strange moment in civilian/soldier wartime-history with spare, vital immediacy * Kirkus Reviews *
A masterpiece of reportage about the simultaneous world war and civil war that ravaged Italy 70 years ago * New York Times *
Superb -- Jonathan Yardley * Washington Post *
This is a book with the beauty of a Corot painting of a peasant girl; in it catastrophe often throws a heavenly light upon the human * Spectator *
Origo was a remarkable writer, with a clear, engaging style, a mind steeped in history and scholarship, but alive always to the nuances and subtleties of human relationships. The hope is that [Pushkin's republication of her work] bring her a new generation of readers * TLS *
Full of evocative description, hair-raising anecdotes, and beautifully rendered portraits of courage * New Yorker *