Review: Our Darkest Night

Our Darkest Night was one of my most anticipated reads of 2021. Jennifer Robson is a favourite author so that shouldn't really be a surprise to anyone! I saved my ARC for my first read of the year - not just because I wanted to read it close to the publication date, January 5, but also because for the last few years Robson's novels have been one of my first reads of the new year. Who am I to mess with the tradition I inadvertently started? I was glad to hunker down with this historical fiction on January 1 and I read it in almost one sitting. It was a well told and eyeopening story that will break your heart but will also, somehow, leave you feeling hopeful.

Here's the synopsis:

To survive the Holocaust, a young Jewish woman must pose as a Christian farmer’s wife in this unforgettable novel from USA Today bestselling author Jennifer Robson—a story of terror, hope, love, and sacrifice, inspired by true events, that vividly evokes the most perilous days of World War II.

It is the autumn of 1943, and life is becoming increasingly perilous for Italian Jews like the Mazin family. With Nazi Germany now occupying most of her beloved homeland, and the threat of imprisonment and deportation growing ever more certain, Antonina Mazin has but one hope to survive—to leave Venice and her beloved parents and hide in the countryside with a man she has only just met.

Nico Gerardi was studying for the priesthood until circumstances forced him to leave the seminary to run his family’s farm. A moral and just man, he could not stand by when the fascists and Nazis began taking innocent lives. Rather than risk a perilous escape across the mountains, Nina will pose as his new bride. And to keep her safe and protect secrets of his own, Nico and Nina must convince prying eyes they are happily married and in love.

But farm life is not easy for a cultured city girl who dreams of becoming a doctor like her father, and Nico’s provincial neighbors are wary of this soft and educated woman they do not know. Even worse, their distrust is shared by a local Nazi official with a vendetta against Nico. The more he learns of Nina, the more his suspicions grow—and with them his determination to exact revenge.

As Nina and Nico come to know each other, their feelings deepen, transforming their relationship into much more than a charade. Yet both fear that every passing day brings them closer to being torn apart...

I'm not Jewish. I say this because I acknowledge that I can't know what kind of trauma Jewish people still endure because of the Holocaust. Robson writes so well and with such care that I would hope it honours those who were killed because of their faith. I've been thinking about this more this week because of what recently happened at the Capitol Building and that disgusting show of racism and anti-Semitism. I'm trying to be more intentional with my reading these days which means not just reading books about Black trauma (though there are many that are outstanding) and I've read a few social media posts that have made me realize that I'm not doing the same regarding Jewish trauma. I read a lot of WWII historical fiction and hadn't really connected the dots enough from then to now. And I want to change that. It's a work in progress and I want to learn more.

Because Robson is an auto-read author, I didn't know much about the story of Our Darkest Night before reading it. What I did know was that it was inspired by a story from her husband's family - that his ancestors had provided safety for Jewish Italians during WWII. It was family lore but she started researching and realized there were many families who provided a safe haven and the novel started taking shape. Robson is a historian first and a novelist second and that is part of what makes her novels so attractive to me. I know the research she's put into these stories and can trust what she's written to be as close to the truth as you could get. 

I have a feeling some people may find this story to be slow because's there's not a lot of real "action" - but I didn't see it like that. This novel opened my eyes to what it would have been like for those not fighting in all the battles we've heard of (and the ones we haven't heard of). The war touched everyone's life - that's why it was called a "world" war. People needed to hide, farms needed to be run, families were torn apart. These were all things that happened in real life and Robson makes that come to life in her novel.

And come to life they did. The characters felt so real and their emotions were so strong that I was constantly on edge and worried for them. What happens to all of them is not something I'd wish on my worst enemy and I can't imagine how on earth anyone could have come up with the means of torture the Nazis employed. And, honestly, I worry about something like that happening again. Mild spoiler but important for content warnings - there are scenes in a concentration camp. Those running the camp are trying to break the occupants, emotionally and physically, and it was, for me, really hard to read.

Our Darkest Night is Nina and Nico's story (though mostly Nina's) but you know this is the story of countless others as well. I adored both of them and watching their relationship grow and evolve. It was like a beacon of light in, well, a really dark night. This is where the hope comes in. That no matter how hard things got, the family leaned on each other and worked hard. That there were good people who risked everything to help those who were being hunted and persecuted. I don't know if I could have been as strong in the same circumstances. I hope I could be.

A lot of people have described Jennifer Robson's latest novel as dark and heartbreaking, myself included, but don't let that scare you off. If you're a fan of good stories, historical or not, you should really pick up a copy of Our Darkest Night. You'll feel, you'll learn, and you'll come out the other side with a better perspective on life. You'll love it.

*An ARC of this novel was provided by the publisher, HarperCollins Canada, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*