Publication Date: December 9, 2025
The author of Escape to Florence returns with a thrilling adventure set in the war-torn 1940s and inspired by true events, about a young woman who risks everything to help Jewish Italians flee the fascists, and falls in love with the brave aviator behind a daring secret rescue operation.
Anna’s family fled to America years ago, to escape the Fascist regime, but Anna had stayed behind. Alone and terrified of discovery, Anna meets Father Vittorio, a Jesuit priest who takes her to shopkeepers Bernardo and Silvia, an older couple who offer shelter and safety without question. But when Anna discovers that this kind, quiet couple is part of a network of ordinary people daring to help Father Vittorio smuggle Jewish citizens, stripped of their status and rights, out of Italy, she is determined to help.
Anna offers skills essential to the cause: she has a deft hand at ledgers and forgery, talents she learned at the high-powered job she held before the Racial Laws were passed—a past she conceals. Working in secrecy, not knowing others’ real names or sharing her own, Anna begins producing fake identity cards and soon meets another member of the operation: a man known as Mr. X., whom she recognizes instantly as the wealthy aviator Massimo Teglio. And suddenly, without warning—despite the threat of imprisonment, torture, and death—Anna finds herself taking the most dangerous of risk of all: falling in love. And she’s not the only one.
Based on the true story of the DELASEM—the Delegation for the Assistance of Jewish Emigrants, an organization of brave volunteers working tirelessly to save innocent lives from the concentration camps—Daughter of Genoa is a poignant look at those who loved and lost yet continued to risk everything to create a better world.
Amid the larger backdrop of World War II, a clandestine rescue network in Genoa attempted to assist Jews facing Nazi persecution.
Author Kat Devereaux uses that concept to build Daughter of Genoa, a fictional novel taking place from April to July 1944. While many of the characters are imagined, the author incorporates historical details surrounding two primary characters: Massimo Teglio and don Francesco Repetto.
Their efforts to protect Italian Jews are illustrated through fictitious characters like Anna. A chance encounter provides an opportunity for safety and shelter. She then leverages her talents for the cause.
With danger at every corner, Anna and others risk their lives to achieve a common goal. Along the way, the author weaves in a romance.
Daughter of Genoa delivers a thrilling adventure full of bravery and sacrifice during World War II.
Kat Devereaux was born near Edinburgh, and has lived in the United States, Russia, France, Chile, Germany and the Czech Republic before finally settling in Italy. She is a writer and translator with a special focus on Italian Literature.
