This is a work of fiction written about the real events in Italy after World War II. The southern parts of Italy were full of desperate parents that didn't want their children to be part of the deprivation that was rampant. Their solution was to send their children to live with other families in the northern part of Italy in the hopes that they would have a better life. I teared up reading this, as I cannot imagine having to make that choice. The author perfectly captured the emotional turmoil of this time period.

I was really hoping that I would finally find an adult historical fiction novel that I loved and it seems it was not to be, though I did enjoy reading this a fair amount. The Children's Train was engaging from the first page, mostly because of the voice or the narrator. Not only was the voice very vibrant, but it was very cool to see history through such a young lens. 


Despite the fact that this featured an interesting perspective, I didn’t know much about the actual history that this book was based on and I think that knowing more about the impact of WWll on Italy would probably have helped draw me in a little more. I did enjoy the first half even without my knowledge, but the thing that really let me down with this novel is the second half and especially the ending. The whole book felt like it was building up to something big and I never really felt like it happened. There wasn’t even an impactful moment at the midpoint. My qualms with the plot may be the result of expecting more drama, perhaps because I read more YA (maybe adult historical fiction is often like this?). Either way, I’m glad to have learned some things about history from this novel, but I ultimately seemed to miss the point of the story. 


If you are a fan of adult historical fiction, I would recommend this, but otherwise I wouldn’t. Thank you to the publisher and @netgalley for the arc!

The Children’s Train is based on true events after WWII when children in Southern Italy were sent to Northern Italy where they were taken care of. Most returned home, some stayed with their new families. The book is told from the point of view of a young child as he is separated from his mother and grows to adulthood. This is a very touching and revealing story,

I received a free ARC of this excellent historical novel from Netgalley, author Viola Ardone, translator Clarissa Botsford and HarperVia, publisher. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this novel of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. Viola Ardone writes an intense, heart-felt story that takes you there to Naples, 1946. The fascists have been defeated in Italy, but the country is still reeling, trying to find its balance, and especially southern Italy is beaten down. Members of the underground and the new Communist party have devised a plan to send some of the more endangered children of the south to families residing in the north of Italy, families willing and able to take in these kids for the winter, to feed them and keep them warm, giving their community time to recover before the children return in the spring.

Amerigo Speranza is seven, precocious, curious, and without shoes. His Mother Mamma Antonietta is a woman often hurt who buries her own emotions and never smiles. She does sewing and piecework, and Amerigo collects rags to sell to keep food on the table. His Dad left long ago for America, and may or may not ever come back. Despite the rampant rumors spread through the children of Naples, Amerigo is open to the idea of the Kinder transport. He is to be given a coat and shoes before they board the train. He and the other children push the new coats out the window of the train to their mothers, so that they might be given to the children who stayed. The kids figure that the reds have plenty of money, they will give them another coat or keep them warm inside. And he has new shoes. He has never had new shoes before. It is a shame they are half a size too small, but they are new, and they are his.

Recovery from the effects of the War is much more advanced in the northern part of the country.
Food is available, The school is wonderful. He is a quick study and a math natural. The lady who is hosting Amerigo is sympathetic and most helpful too. Though things are still unsettled in his mind, he has an interesting, educational winter and he has a new violin made especially for him, and lessons getting him beyond the screeching and wailing of all new violinists. He has found new authority figures he respects, has found new friends along with old ones who came with him on the train. He has his first birthday party for his eighth birthday, with gifts and cake. And in the spring, some of the children choose to remain with their new families. Though Amerigo and his companions return to the south, Amerigo does not fit back into the slot he was removed from. Family is all he has, all he knows. Both his personal family and those he discovered in the north. He must decide what path to follow. And whose heart must he break to honor his own needs?

We return with him to Naples in 1994 upon the death of his mother and see him again reassessing his life, his world. He has a nephew he never knew who needs a helping hand. Will he be able to give it? Or should he just walk away...

Although this book is based on historical events of which I was unaware -- the temporary relocation of thousands of children from post-WWII Southern Italy to the north during the winter, where they were taken into homes, fed, clothed, and in many cases, loved by a group of communists -- its story of the relationship between one mother and her child is what is most important in this beautiful novel. Told in heart-wrenching terms by an 8-year old whose single impoverished illiterate mother, who has known nothing but headache and tragedy throughout her life except for her son, makes the difficult decision to let him go - not once but twice. He does not fully recognize either the depth of her sacrifices or the impact of his life choices until he returns as a 50-year-old man when he learns of her death. This book was not at all what I expected, but I am so very glad that I had the chance to read it. Both the author and the very skilled translator have done a fantastic job of presenting such a multilayered rich story in a way that will appeal to a wide range of readers. Highly recommended.

I can’t quite wrap my mind around what the author was seeking to impart here. She was obviously promoting communism in Italy after WWII as the utopia for all downtrodden and war torn people – and this continued throughout the book. I’m not sure what the message was for today’s world since the book ended in 1994 – the same year communism was defeated in Russia and the USSR fell apart.

There were a lot of things I questioned in the story. One was the total absence of mother-love and family-love in the original setting of poverty torn Naples and she contrasted this with the loving and caring exhibited by the communists in the north of Italy. According to this story, the deprived children from war torn areas (Unloved by their parents) were given the finest food and clothing, shoes, education (even in a conservatory), etc. with the communists. This was clearly propaganda, but … to what purpose?

Or maybe she was saying that even though these children were given all that money could buy, they grew up cold and uncaring because of the rejection felt by their mothers.

I think a reader could spend a lot of time pondering the ideas presented here and debating the validity of the history presented.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and from the publisher, HarperVia, in exchange for an honest review.

If you are a fan of The Orphan Train or Before We Were Yours, then this is the book for you. Its written with the same gut wrenching honesty that made those two books hits. This book is written from the POV of a child which gives this book a touch of innocence that the others didn't have. We also are gifted with watching the child grow up and hearing is story as well and how it made him the person he is (was) now in the book.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for the ARC.

The war is over, but Italy is still recovering and is filled with underprivileged children.

Northern Italy seems to have come back much quicker and are more prosperous.

THE CHILDREN'S TRAIN is a story based on true events that happened post WWII.

We meet young children taken from their parents by choice to live with an adopted family in Northern Italy for the winter.

The train ride was frightening for the children because they were worried about how the new families would treat them, and they missed their mothers and fathers.

There were some funny parts, though, when one of the younger girls shouted: Look it is raining ricotta. It was snow, and she had never seen snow before.

You will feel sorry for the children and hope their fears of what will happen to them subside.

We follow the life of Amerigo with his adopted family. They actually were much nicer than his own mother.

We see his life before he lived with his adopted family and also 50 years later.

I really enjoyed Amerigo and the Italian names.

If you are of Italian descent, you will love this book.

This was another event in history that I wasn't aware of.

It is educational, uplifting, but also heartbreaking.

ENJOY!! 5/5

This book was given to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Children's Train, by Viola Ardone, is an interesting historical fiction view of a period of time following WWII, when Southern Italy was suffering great poverty, and Northern Italy was not. This is the story of Amerigo, one of many impoverished refugee children, who is sent from Naples to Northern Italy to live. This is part of a Communist initiative to improve their lives. Young Amerigo's story is told by the older Amerigo as he looks back over his life. He has an interesting perspective of an event that I was previously unaware of and this book has given me a reason to learn more. Thank you NetGalley and HarperVia for an ARC ebook version of this book in return for an honest review.

This is a hard one to review, we follow Amerigo when he is given the opportunity to go to north Italy for the winter in the aftermath of WWII. He is taken in by a wonderful family, they treat him well and open him up to possibilities he would have never had before. He is then torn when he has to go back to his mother.
I can’t really put my finger on why this story just did not grab me. One thing I found was following the timeline, without the chapter headings giving the date or the location of where we were, I would get confused. Sometimes they skipped multiple years and it would take me a bit to figure out.
It was an interesting read, I enjoyed it, but I just think it could have been so much more.
I was given the opportunity to read an ARC from HarperVia and NetGalley for my honest unbiased review. This one comes in at 3 ½ stars, rounded up to 4.

What an interesting story! I loved young Amerigo. I wish we stayed more with him bc the ending felt a bit stilted but overall a very good read. I never even knew this story about Italy and I definitely would like to know more. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my advance copy

One boy, two lives

This is a story about an event history, I have never been aware of before. The time is Right after the war, the place is southern Italy. The times are hard and the people are very poor. The Communist party has offered to take a train full of poor children up to Northern Italy where times are better.

Amerigo lives alone with his mother, they are very poor. His mother sends him north on the Children's Train.

The story is about Amerigo and some of his friends that went on the Children's Train. How they adjusted, how they grew, and their thoughts. Some returned home, some stayed, Amerigo returned home and then went back.

He always felt he had two lives, one in the south and one in the north. The story will tell how he deals with this conflict and how he finally find peace.

The story is different from others I have read. I learned a bit about something new in history. The characters were perfect, the clothing was described very well, and the settings were stated in such a way I felt like I had traveled to Italy.

I enjoyed reading this book and I would recommend it.

Thanks to Viola Ardone, Harpervia, and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of the book in return for an honest review.

This was a very interesting book about a young boy, Amerigo, and his life in Italy. Amerigo is being raised by his mother who doesn't have much money and decides to send him up north on the orphan train, to be cared for by another family.

The toll that this takes on Amerigo is seem throughout the story as he reflects on the many emotions that comes along with it. The book gave me a lot to think about.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc. The opinions are my own.

The Children’s Train is a very moving story, based on actual events, that gets better as you delve further into the book. It takes place in Italy after WWII. The beginning of the story is told by Amerigo, a seven year old boy who is sent to Norther Italy, by train, with thousands of other children, in order to be given a better life. As a child, Amerigo felt as if his family didn’t love him. His mother was sending him away to a new family where he felt he didn’t fit in. The second half of the book is where the story reaches a new level. Amerigo is now 50 and is headed back to his childhood home. The emotion this journey brings to him is vividly felt through his 50 year old voice. As parents age it is important to express your feelings and say all that is important before it is too late. This is a tender story filled with many emotions. It makes you think about your own relationships. The Children’s Train by Viola Ardone is beautifully written and would be a good book club pick. It will be released in January. Thank you NetGalley and Harper Via for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What a heart-rending story. I was fully invested in this novel when I read the first few pages. This is a story I couldn't wait until I got to the end, because I needed to see how it ended. But I wasn't ready for it to end. Does that even make since? This author takes you along on the train ride with the children from Southern Italy up North, where things are not as hard and desperate. The main character is such a likable, smart young man, he wins over everyone, except maybe his own mother. It was a very hard time right after WWII. Food was scarce and so were jobs. Their town still showed signs of the bombings they suffered. Not even to mention the mental stress they were trying to heal from. Everyone was surviving in their own may. I went from one spectrum of emotions to the other. I found myself laughing out load when Amerigo with his best friend decided to make money by selling guinea pigs, cutting the tails off of city rats and painting them like guinea pigs. My heart and emotions were so heavy for the mothers taking their sons and daughters to the train station that morning to send them of the families up north. This was a true example of loving someone and wanting better for them than yourself. I thank
HarperVia for allowing me through NetGalley to read this great book. The opinions express in this review are my own.

This book may not be what you think it is. Yes, it’s an historical fiction account of an effort to help impoverished children in southern Italy by transporting them by train to better off families in northern Italy in the aftermath of World War II. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg – or the shoe - in this hauntingly beautiful novel spanning some fifty years.

Sent away to the north of Italy by train to escape the destitution of the south, seven year-old Amerigo Speranza misses home and his brusque, taciturn mother, Antonietta. She emanates all the maternal warmth of the Polar Ice Caps. Antonietta doesn’t have much in the way of “strong points,” Amerigo dryly observes.

At first, he doesn’t fit in up north. But the kindness, generosity, and warmth of the northerners win him over. Amerigo is a changed boy after six months. He’s not the insecure, rudderless boy he was when his impassive mother put him on the train. Realizing that he’s better dressed, fed, educated, and cared for in the north than he ever was in the south, Amerigo balks at going back. Upon Amerigo’s return to the south later, however, he finds he doesn’t fit in there either.

So, where does he fit in? His mother is in the south. But his family is in the north. So just where, exactly, is “home”? That’s the crux of the entire book, along with what and who is “family,” and why?

Along the way we wonder, along with Amerigo, what the difference is between “exiled” and “sent away.” Or is there one? Do northern tortellini taste of hospitality or charity? We see how the women of southern Italy did their part in driving out the Germans and how they band together to fight the twin enemies of poverty and hunger later. “Whatever we can do, we must do.” Sol-i-dar-i-ty. Dig-ni-ty. In-ter-na-zio-nale. Where does “solidarity” go if we all go in different places? Grays skies. Long, thin clouds. Fascists vs. Communists vs. hunger, poverty, and disease. “Weeds grow so fast.”

Shoes.

Fast forward to 1994. A grown man, Amerigo returns to his childhood village, violin case in hand. The narrative shifts here. The point of view is that of an adult as Amerigo talks to his recently deceased mother. But Amerigo is so reluctant to identify with his mother that when questioned, he insists he’s Antonietta’s nephew, not her son. Because (spoiler) he’s “the son who ran away. The one who never came to see you.” This seems to never stop gnawing at Amerigo’s conscience. Because this time, she’s the one who “ran away.” And she’s not coming back.

Bittersweet recollections follow and bubble to the surface, filtered through a fifty year window. Amerigo slowly realizes that from the moment his mother put him on the train in 1946, the two of them traveled two different tracks which never crossed again. And that their two lives were a “mix up” of miscommunications and “a love made up of misunderstandings.”

Struggling to understand what happened in the past and why, Amerigo boards another train. He retraces his steps “all the way back to you, Mamma.” In the process, Amerigo slowly realizes that all feet are different. Everyone with its own shape and size. If you don’t understand the differences, if you don’t indulge them, then “all of life is suffering.”

Part of the strength of the novel is its Point of View. The bulk of this story is told from the viewpoint of a seven year old child. It sounds like a seven year old, without sounding juvenile. Instead of putting adult views or verbiage into a young child’s mouth, the author adeptly conveys the thoughts, emotions, and perspective of a young child in a young child’s voice. It’s no mean feat. But Ardone pulls it off, creating a credible, three-dimensional character and an absorbing story of love, loss, and self-discovery.

A beautiful, poignant read full of pathos and power, The Children’s Train is recommended for anyone who enjoys thoughtful, articulate historical fiction or has ever wondered where “home” is.

Originally published in Italy as Il Treno dei Bambini, 2019.


#TheChildrensTrain

Read if you: Are a fan of World War II historical fiction, but are interested in something that takes place in the aftermath.

Librarians/booksellers: This covers a unique aspect of post-WW II life in Italy, in which some children in the southern part of the country were sent to live with the more prosperous families in the north. Ardone vividly brings to life the shock the children felt when arriving, the bonds they formed, and the difficulties they faced when they returned, as well as the lifelong consequences.

Many thanks to HarperVia and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.

I received this book "The Children's Train" from NetGalley and all opinions expressed are my own. I had a bit of a hard time with this book in the beginning, it was a slow for me to get into. I did enjoy reading about Amerigo's journey from young boy to adult. He went through some tough times trying to figure things out. He had a lot of regrets and I definitely felt them with him, the pain he was feeling. There is no going back on the choices one makes in their life. It's hard for anyone not to think of the "what if's". Overall an interesting book that was based on true events.

Based on true events, set in post-World War II Italy, about poor children from the south sent to live with families in the north to survive deprivation.

The war has devastated Italy, especially south. Seven-year-old Amerigo Sperenza lives with his mother in Naples, surviving on odd jobs. But one day, Amerigo learns that a train will take him north to a better place.

In the north, he adapts well to his new surroundings and adopted family. At school, he proves to be good with numbers. With his adopted father he fixes instruments. But his ambitions are much higher. He wants to play those instruments, and not just tune them.

At 75%, the story shifts fifty years later. And some chapters bring the voice of Amerigo as he is talking to his late mother. It reveals how things followed in his early age and he also reconnects with some lost friendships.

The voice of a grown-up Amerigo is interesting and reads well. However, I enjoyed the wit and the voice of him as a boy so much that I wished it just followed the young voice to almost the end or for a longer time. I wasn’t ready to part with the voice of the boy when it happened.

I enjoyed a lot the innocent voice of Amerigo, who for example, thinks he can get to America by train until another child explains that he needs to take a ship. But at the time, he doesn’t have anyone to confirm that America is on the other side of the sea.

At some points, he made me laugh out loud. “I look the bull in the face and can see he has a nasty temper, a bit like Mamma Antonietta, who is sweet and nice, but when you get in her way, she literally sees red.”

Amerigo is such a loveable character. I usually prefer voice of an adult, but he turns out to be probably the most memorable character I have ever encountered.

It is a moving story of self-exploration, the choices we face and make, especially when it comes to family. Those are the hardest decisions. What does family truly mean?

Written with heartfelt prose, with well-drawn characters facing hardships and struggles, thus well-depicting the time period, and keeping the plot moving forward at all times.

I received a free e-copy of The Children's Train in exchange for an unbiased review

There were parts of this book I loved and parts that just seemed redundant. The events are seen through the eyes of Amerigo, a seven-year-old boy who lives in southern postwar Italy. He is fascinated by shoes and marks happiness and success by the condition of someone's shoes. Hunger and poverty are rampant and Amerigo's single mother, Antonietta, makes the heartbreaking decision to send him north with other children on a train sponsored by the Communist Party. What is in the North is somewhat a mystery but Antonietta and other parents are desperate. Amerigo and the other children find loving homes, food, and an education for the six months or so they are there. Their attitudes and expectations are irrevocably altered by their experiences.

Antonietta is a most interesting character. Gruff and easily critical, she doesn't have the usual mothering characteristics; one must wonder if all her energy had gone into just surviving the war with a living child. Amerigo and his mother never really open up to each other, perhaps because of Amerigo's youth or Antonietta's fear of being soft when survival depends on a certain toughness. She never really connects with her own child.

Since most of this book is from the point of view of a young boy, there are glimpses of people and events that he really doesn't understand; readers must draw the connections and implications. This novel provides another perspective of the lasting ramifications of war that don't end with a signed surrender.

#NetGalley #TheChildren'sTrain