In 1938, a young, idealistic propaganda minister in Benito Mussolini's fascist government (Gianni Orlandini) meets a Venetian girl of patrician family (Gabriella De Luca), also a nurse in the Italian Red Cross.
She is " the most beautiful woman" he has ever seen. He "wears good will upon his heart like a badge of honor". Enraptured they fall in love and plan to marry. All as Adolf Hitler places his first Nazi SS operatives in Rome to secure his "Pact of Steel" with Mussolini prior to the start of World War II.
As Germans arrive, they are welcomed. But when Hitler's chief designate (Heinrich Durer) - believing himself of "master race" begins to degrade Italian life and Italians themselves - Gianni begins to question his support for his fascist government which allowed Durer entrance to Italian soil. When Durer ultimately harms members of Gabriella's family to show support for the Reich, Gianni's journey to destroy the SS officer and to embarrass Mussolini becomes an obsession.
Working in secrecy while maintaining his position in Mussolini's regime he forms an astonishing coalition of Italian resistance fighters as diverse as an opera diva, a Jewish banker from Milan, a nurse from Flint Michigan on holiday in Italy at the time and a stage hand from the Teatro Reggio in Torino, and sets a plot to accomplish his goal. The emotional gut needed for this struggle shows the power of stalwart, honest people who want democracy returned to their land. The struggle brings both exhilaration and sorrow.
A QUIET GRIEF is particularly relevant today as world, and US, politics veer ever closer to an "open" acceptance of authoritarian ideology. The work was presented as a work in progress at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference in August 2023 and received positive response.
