Street Boys (Charnwood Library) [Hardcover]

"* 'Spellbinding prose... [a] thrilling, draining novel' THE TIMES * 'Carcaterra's unrelenting pace gives this sweeping saga a style all its own' MAXIM * 'Brutal... violent... devastating. Not for the faint-hearted' DAILY EXPRESS * 'Startlingly good crime fiction' OBSERVER * 'Reads like a treatment for a Martin Scorcese script' INDEPENDENT * '[A] tough two-fisted tale of New York street-life and the victory of rough justice over the law' FINANCIAL TIMES

In late September 1943, as Italy became the latest battleground in the clash between the Allies and Nazi Germany, the city of Naples was next on the list to be crushed by the German Army, no stone to be left standing. Carcaterra's novel, based on a true story, tells of the ragged band of street boys led by a rogue American soldier who defended the city against the Wermacht's finest. The vast struggle the street boys face ensure that there is no lack of drama; there is a real sense of fighting desperately against the odds as the Nazi net slowly spreads over the city. Carcaterra also has no trouble conjuring up the atmosphere and suffering of the incredible times - the story is replete with images of Italian beauty crushed by the demands of war as Neapolitan architecture topples into dust under the mechanical German war machine. But despite this Carcaterra cannot make his characters any more than two-dimensional, and though the story is full of dramatic action the twists and turns are rather predictable. This is a true testament to courage with some amazing scenes, but Carcaterra might have done better if he had simply recounted the true story rather than fictionalized it. (Kirkus UK)

Carcaterra (best known for Sleepers, 1995) inserts an American into the Four Days of Naples, when the great port city was saved from Nazi destruction by an army composed mostly of boys. The Italians made a beautiful film of this astonishing and true WWII story of Neapolitan heroism, but Carcaterra's new version supposes an American hero, a second-year law student from Kentucky, Steve Connors, now ably serving as an army corporal. Connors is sent in by his commander to reconnoiter Naples, which the Germans have recently evacuated of its citizens prior to executing Hitler's order to destroy the city. The Allied Forces are sitting on their duffs, waiting for a go-ahead from Field Marshall Montgomery, but the Germans aren't. Colonel Von Klaus's Panzer tanks are clanking down the road, picking off stray Italians and headed for what they are sure will be a cakewalk. Corporal Connors, losing his two sidekicks in action on the way into the city, gains a replacement force of scugnizzi, Neapolitan street urchins, and a wounded but still valiant mastiff. By a miracle roughly equivalent to the liquification of the blood of Naples' patron San Gennaro, the lads-and most of the lads Connors will meet-speak, not just English, but an English that reads eerily like a dubbed soundtrack. Connors himself speaks a lot of exposition, dialogue not being a Carcaterra strong point. Connors hooks up with one of the few adults in town, a clever but cynical boozer with a comely daughter, and together they set a strategy to stop the Panzers in their tracks. The action finally picks up, halfway through the story, with the onslaught of the Nazis and execution of the plan, which involves a lot of sewer scuttling for the scugnizzi, street urchins, and surprise for the conquerors of Europe. Connors and the pretty daughter will find a few quiet moments alone amid the fray. Past the clunky soundtrack and heroic Yank, there's a great story here. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

A gang of street urchins and an American soldier fight to liberate the city of Naples from the German army Naples, late September, 1943. The war in Europe is almost won. Italy is leaderless; Mussolini already arrested by anti-fascists. The city has been evacuated, but the German army is moving towards Naples to finish the job. Their chilling instructions are: if the city can't belong to Hitler, it will belong to no one. No one but the children. Orphaned or hidden by parents, abandoned or lost, some as young as ten years old, the children of Naples resist. Aided by a lone Allied soldier, cut off from his regiment, and armed with just a handful of guns, unexploded bombs and their own ingenuity, the street boys are determined to take on the advancing enemy and save the city - or die trying. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.