Sally Brady's Italian Adventure

With war engulfing Europe, an effervescent young American party girl leaves behind her glamorous life in Rome and uses her wiles and humor to save her imperiled friends.

What if you found yourself in the middle of a war armed only with lipstick and a sense of humor? Abandoned as a child in Los Angeles in 1931, dust bowl refugee Sally Brady convinces a Hollywood movie star to adopt her, and grows up to be an effervescent gossip columnist secretly satirizing Europe’s upper crust. By 1940 saucy Sally is conquering Fascist-era Rome with cheek and charm.

A good deed leaves Sally stranded in wartime Italy, brandishing a biting wit, a fake passport, and an elastic sense of right and wrong. To save her friends and find her way home through a land of besieged castles and villas, Sally must combat tragedy with comedy, tie up pompous bureaucrats in their own red tape, force the cruel to be kind, and unravel the mystery, weight, and meaning of family.

Heir to Odysseus’s wiles and Candide’s optimism, Sally Brady is a heroine for the 21st century.

About the Author

CHRISTINA LYNCH is a professor of English at College of the Sequoias in Visalia, California. A former Milan correspondent for W and Women's Wear Daily, she has written on staff for television shows such as The Dead Zone, Encore! Encore!, Unhappily Ever After and Wildfire. Lynch is the author of The Italian Party.