Book review

THE CHAPEL AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD
by Kirsten McKenzie

Conflict is often a route to miracles, a time when unlikely friends are made and bonds forged that could last a lifetime. Many stories like this one emerged from the darkness of World War II. This book is a gently written, vaguely disconnected and very readable fictionalised record of one of these wonderful tales. Once upon a real time, when battle raged across what used to be Europe, a group of soldiers taken prisoner during the war came together to create something that exists even today – a small chapel on a hill on a small and desolate island in Orkney, where the PoWs are stationed. They built it from salvaged material, nuts, bolts, scrap found in the mud, and home-concocted paint. And they learned how to see faith as not some kind of saviour, but as a way to be thankful for what they found within themselves.

The story begins when the artistic Emilio and Rosa, childhood sweethearts and just formally engaged, are separated by war. He, along with others from his unit, are trudging through the desert, weakened by heat, a lack of water and proper food, and are taken captive. As PoWs, they are shipped off to Lamb Holm, on a tiny island which seems like the edge of the world. There they learn to live with each other and, in essence, with themselves. Emilio finds friends in Paolo, Romano, Bertoldo and others, sketching everything and everyone inside and outside the small hut they call home. A priest takes a small makeshift mass, but it is not enough for Emilio, who longs for a real church, one with an altar and a picture of the Madonna framed by elaborately patterned arches.

Suddenly, it all becomes possible. Italy surrenders to the Allies and is out of the war. So the prisoners are no longer prisoners, but men free to live as they wish. But there is no one who tells them how to go home. So they make lives for themselves on the island and, soon, a small place from where they can speak to God. Emilio designs a chapel in abandoned Nissan huts, making it beautiful, artistic, simple, with all the devotion and skill that he, the artist, has in his soul.

Meanwhile, back in Italy in her little village on the banks of Lake Como, Rosa becomes embroiled in the local resistance movement. She finds diversion in Pietro, in the excitement of subterfuge and the attempted escape of Rachele and her father, Jews who attempt to flee the persecution they face. And, of course, there is Heinrich…

Both stories, forming a whole by virtue of the connection between the two protagonists, have their moments of drama, of grey dullness, of suffering. At the end, which is actually where the book starts, the married couple are visiting the island – Emilio is not all there in his mind, while Rosa tends him with all the devotion but not quite all the love that she has. Bertoldo is still young, his memories of trauma buried either too deep to be felt, or felt to deeply to be shown. And all that really matters is the small chapel at the edge of the world.,,