Restoration is a novel of two women both being haunted by mistakes from their pasts, brought together by circumstances to a villa in Tuscany, which eventually turns into the frontline in a battle between the retreating Germans and The Allied forces during World War Two. There's a passage very close to the end that sums up the novel very well for me. "But our problems were trivial in the scheme of things. We can see that now that the world lies in ruins." Both these women were in the middle of a war zone and yet spent most of their time so focused on the ghost of their pasts that I eventually began to find these musings quite tedious. And I find my self wondering why the author included this line about the characters trivial problems, when that was pretty much the entire theme of the novel. ( )

Restoration is set in the waning days of the Second World War, as the Germans retreated through Italy and is largely set on a fattoria where Alice, estranged from her husband after the tragic death of her son, works to keep everything going and the tenants, workers and the children evacuated from cities further south fed and safe. There are partisans in the woods, who periodically take shelter with the more outlying tenant farms and she's been coerced into hiding a painting for the Germans. Kristin arrives at the fattoria after being injured in an explosion on the train she was in and remains even after her wounds are healing. She's left behind an unhappy love affair and a secret that could destroy the man she once loved.

Restoration is a novel with an old-fashioned feel to it. There isn't a modern story bracketing the one set in the 1940s and it's told in a clear straight-forward manner. This was an enjoyable and engrossing read and while I don't think it will stay with me very long, I'd be happy enough to read something else by Olafsson. ( )

Restoration, which is set in Italy during WWII, tells the story of two women. The first, Alice, a daughter of wealthy British ex-pats, shockingly marries an Italian landowner. The other, Kristin, is a young, Belgian ex-pat and very talented art restorer who is in Rome working for a Renaissance expert and dealer named Robert Marshall. Alice and her husband are renovating their villa in Tuscany, but after the loss of a child, she has a untimely affair that she will regret. Kristin will become involved with her boss and do things that that she will also regret.

As the war moves around and over them, the women carry on in individual storylines with hints of connection. Eventually, Kristin will seek shelter from the fighting at Alice’s villa.

Apologies for a rather dry description of the main characters and plot, but I wish not to give much away. There is something about this wonderful, sad, immersive story of women, love, art and war, that one really should discover in reading the book itself rather than in a review. Olafsson, another author who writes with great empathy and compassion, tells a remarkable tale here that will mesmerize the reader. One only has to look at the striking cover to see what awaits.

This may be Olafsons’ best novel, but hard to say as they are all different. I love his writing enough to have chased down all of his work, with a few left still left to read. ( )

Restoration. Olaf Olafsson.1912. I really liked this book. ( My college roommate , Ellen, left it with me last year along with Gentleman in Moscow. What great taste in books she has!). This is the story of Alice, an ex-pat married to an Italian landowner and Kristen, a young Icelandic artist apprenticed to a noted art restorer whose lives intersect in Italy during World War II. Those who have read The Monuments Men, or seen the movie or have read The Rape of Europa will be familiar with the Nazi’s systematic plan to take the great works of art will enjoy this book. ( )

Just an okay read. Didn't catch my interest nor kept it. Struggled to finish it and thought it was rambling and disjointed at times. Some descriptions were well written, but on the whole disappointing. ( )