Natalie Jenner (The Jane Austen Society) plunges readers into a glittering world of cinema, censorship, and complex relationships in postwar Italy in her third novel, Every Time We Say Goodbye. After her playwriting career takes a disappointing turn, Vivien Lowry (featured in Jenner's Bloomsbury Girls) heads to Rome to work as a script doctor at Cinecittà Studios. She meets a colorful cast of characters--actors, producers, directors--from various countries, all doing their best to enjoy la dolce vita while fighting strict censorship by the Vatican. More poignantly, though, Vivien and her new friends are also still reckoning with their experiences during World War II. Vivien is searching for news of her lost fiancé, David, a POW who may have ended up in Italy.
Jenner unspools Vivien's story alongside that of la scolaretta, a local resistance fighter responsible for taking down a Nazi commander in 1943. Known as "the schoolgirl assassin," the young woman met a gruesome end, but her bravery has inspired a film script--one that Vivien's colleague Nino is determined to slip past the censors. As Vivien plunges into work at the studio, she learns more about the resistance in Italy; the long reach of the Vatican; the tangled network of Hollywood and Roman personalities that both drives the studio forward and thwarts its progress; and the painful personal histories of her colleagues. Levi Bassano, an Italian American writer with questions of his own about the war, becomes Vivien's loyal friend and companion, while John Lassiter, an enigmatic American producer with ties to a famous Italian actress, draws Vivien's attention in a different way. Several of Vivien's friends from Bloomsbury Girls (including art collector Peggy Guggenheim) resurface, and their combined support eventually helps Vivien find clarity.
With warmth and compassion, Jenner explores her characters' triumphs and tragedies: one woman's unplanned pregnancy, another's childhood experiences as a refugee, the constant racism faced by Black actors both at home and abroad. Before Vivien and the other characters can move forward, they must each grapple with the scars left by their pasts. "Perhaps," as one character muses, "examining the past will guide you in ways you can't yet know." Living in the Eternal City, Vivien must face up to her own past and how it affects her present, and decide what kind of future she wants to build.
With lush descriptions, vivid period detail, and fascinating personalities, Jenner's cinematic narrative is shot through with both pain and hope. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams
Shelf Talker: Natalie Jenner's vivid third novel explores cinema, censorship, and complex relationships in Rome after World War II.