Really torn on this book, as I remember the movie that was made from this - a movie that was a huge box office disappointment! Maybe it is because I am Italian, maybe it is because the sites in the book all come from the region of my ancestry - Le Marche on the Adriatic Coast - and maybe it is because of the fact that this is an older book based on WW2. I wanted to like the book that is sort of classified as a comedy but at the same time there are vast parts of this book that deal with the horror of war that, while realistic, really gave me a different impression on the book.
The basic premise is that the town of Santa Vittoria is a great wine growing and producing area, and is the wine used to make vermouth. After the US invasion of Italy the Germans move into the area and a small group of 8 or 9 soldiers are told to take the town and get the wine. The town, after the fall of the Fascist government, elected a new mayor who is charitably described as a Sicilian clown, except he is a much deeper thinker than they realize and he does things to help the town including hiding the wine. This is a book about occupation and resistance, about the Italians appearing dumber than the Germans and yet have outwitted them the entire time. Seen as that there is definitely amusement in the book.
However, the scenes of torture by the SS, sacrificial citizens unwittingly being led to torture, a village hostage who is left tied up in the village square before being killed, the substitution of another citizen for sacrificial death, etc. all is a lot more than I expected and to me the book drags through these parts, as the citizens are forced to do all of this to protect their One Million bottles of wine. Not that realistic that wine is more important that people and dignity, and dignity is what is lacking in this book as the Italians are made to look like fools and in the end the German occupiers are made to suffer the same fate.
Also, cannot stand the character Tufa who plays an important part in the book and certain storylines appear not to have been successfully tied up by the end of the book.
A fast read, and at times a fun read, but not one I would really recommend.

A great book. Best novel I've read in a long time. There's plenty of humor early on, but as the end comes (and the SS) the fun ends. It rings true from beginning to end.

After watching the movie a couple of times over the years, I found out there was a novel. While the book goes along with the general theme of the movie, the screenplay does make the subject more comical and less serious than the novel. I don't like the torture scene in the movie (which is basically hearing the men scream off screen) and I was deeply disturbed by the graphic torture scene in the book. I absolutely cannot fathom how human beings can be so sadistic to other human beings. I enjoyed reading the book, but the movie was more comical, if the topic of Nazi occupation can be thought of as comical. I really enjoyed how the so-called "simple Italian peasants" lead by their mayor, Italo Bombolini, were able to make fools of their Nazi occupiers. I just hope that my Southern Italian relatives that did not emigrate to the US in 1900, did not suffer at the hands of the Nazis.

"The duty of the people is to tend to their own affairs.
The duty of government is to help them do it.
This is the pasta of politics.
The inspired leader, the true prince, no matter
how great, can only be sauce upon the pasta." Bombolini

This was an interesting story about the German occupation of a small Italian village during WW II . The people of Santa Vittoria have a stockpile of one million bottles of wine that is produced in their village and is of the highest quality. Their wine production is a source of pride, and their ability to keep the Germans from stealing it is the challenge of this story. I enjoyed the rich descriptions of the Italian character and tempermant and watching the clever ways the Italians strung along the German soldiers.

Something made me suddenly think of this book today. I read it twice many years ago, and may have to again now that I’ve remembered it. It’s a unique, ultimately victorious tale that pits a small town in Italy against a coming invasion of Germans. The townspeople, in order to guard their treasure—which happens to be wine—must work together ingeniously to pull it off. In the end, planning, determination, grit, and a little luck come together to pull it off. There are bittersweet moments, but also humor and an uplifting “win” against an evil regime that leaves the reader smiling.

This novel covering an Italian village's experiences with the Nazis between the fall of Italy to the allies and the expulsion of the Nazis from the peninsula was both engaging and sobering. The village of Santa Vittoria, famous for its deep red wine, attempts to hide its considerable wine stocks from the pillaging occupation forces. Along the way, as is often the case in war, uncomfortable compromises are made by both sides.

Having never lived in a war zone, it is difficult to fully appreciate the horrible events and bedeviling trade-offs that happen. When you are occupied by an aggressive enemy that can arbitrarily mistreat you and your fellow citizens without consequence, what is the appropriate approach? It is also difficult to understand forgiveness after unnecessary torture, robbery, mistreatment or murder.

The Secret of Santa Vittoria is similar to All the Light We Cannot See in context, though I enjoyed the writing better in the former. Those looking for a war drama that feels believable will likely find this book to be rather satisfying. I look forward to watching the film.

3.5 * Lost one-half star because of the length; for me it was about 3 to four hours too long. Interesting story of how a small Italian village, in the middle of nowhere, fooled a equally small occupation force (0nly 8 soldiers) during World War II. None of the characters particularly engaged me, nor did I find any of them sympathetic.

Fine read! The story of a peasant village and it's determination to save their wine from the occupying German forces. Vivid characters on both sides, including a clownish Sicilian mayor who consults his only book (Machiavelli's "The Prince") for guidance in the struggle. Usually humorous, but occasionally deadly serious. Well worth the effort.

A charming but laborious novel, I think Robert Crichton's The Secret of Santa Vittoria attempts but falls short in something that Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove, one of my favourite books, would later achieve remarkably. Both are comic epics with a great mass of colourful characters; stories that have, just below their surface, a penalty of violence and death for those characters who err; and the central anima of a great, though unassuming, undertaking that becomes, through the wonderful dove-tailing of various character interactions, the deed of their life.

However, where McMurtry's sweeping Western was larger-than-life, Crichton's wartime farce is often cartoonish and whimsical. Where the 900+ pages of Lonesome Dove were almost dreamlike in their swift pace, the 380 pages of The Secret of Santa Vittoria are often plodding. Crichton's characters can be shallow, for all the attention given to them, where McMurtry's come to life in a single line of dialogue. Where Lonesome Dove's violence feels inevitable, Santa Vittoria's feels reckless. Perhaps most importantly, Lonesome Dove's quest to establish a cattle ranch in Montana feels like the greatest triumph of all the world – in Woodrow Call's phrase, a "hell of a vision". In Santa Vittoria, the efforts of the population of a small Italian town to hide their stores of wine from the Nazis seem quixotic and, eventually, anti-climactic.

It is harsh, perhaps, to compare The Secret of Santa Vittoria to McMurtry's masterpiece, for all books should be judged on their own merits, but I found the parallels occurring to me as I read the book, and illuminating when trying to diagnose Santa Vittoria's points of failure. Without the illustrative comparison to Lonesome Dove I mentioned above, one could still say that Santa Vittoria is often slow in its pacing, cartoonish in its characterisation and redundant in its attempts. I couldn't help but think how fortunate the citizens of Santa Vittoria were that the German commander sent to loot their hidden wine is determined, for no apparent reason, to use the mind rather than the muscle (pg. 272). The Italians bamboozle the Germans, which is fine enough for a while, but eventually they are in clear mockery of the German occupiers, which is unfathomable. Even when more hardened German (and SS) troops arrive, there are only a few instances of coercive torture and one contrived execution. By the end, I was staggered that Captain von Prum's Luger hadn't bore a hole in Bombolini's head – or anyone's. There are some clever schemes in this book, but I was never fully on board with the townspeople's ingenuity, because I knew it was only the author's artifice preventing Santa Vittoria from becoming Oradour-sur-Glane.

With this bewilderment always in mind, it was a struggle for me to engage with the stakes in Crichton's book. If you strain, you can dig out some deeper theme about how the wine represents the life of the town, or life in general, which must be protected at all costs against the death and surrender represented by the Germans. But such is the plodding nature of the story, and its artificial, often whimsical, tone, that it can be hard for such a theme to settle. There's no great movement in the prose or the story, and it drags. This novel is one of those that, while good, you feel it should be better than it is. I kept expecting some note to sound which never came.

A great book...I don't know why this book is not considered one of the greats..highly recommended !

This was such a fun book. I found this book, fittingly, on a shelf at my Italian grandmother’s house, with pages so old that they cracked or fell out of the book as I turned each one. That gave the story more allure, a sort of magic as I traveled through time to this tiny Italian village.

It’s amazing that this book is based on a true story, and I very much want to know how much of it is true and actually happened to the author, and how much is exaggerated or added for effect. The descriptions of these characters, the way in which Bombolini becomes mayor, the day to day lives of the inhabitants of Santa Vittoria, their traditions, their mannerisms, and of course their undying respect and honor for their wine.

The lengths they went to in order to hide their wine from the Germans were equal parts legendary and outlandish. Would they pull it off? Would the Germans find it? I turned each fragile, disintegrating page with bated breath as the wall was built, as the Germans arrived, as the bottles exploded, on and on. The people of Santa Vittoria faced each new challenge with such spirit and unyielding determination to keep their wine, I couldn’t help but root for them the entire way.

I know this is also a motion picture, and now I’d like to see it. This book made me laugh out loud and dazzled me with such strong characters and communal spirit. The writing style does somehow feel a little old now, though I can’t quite put into words why, but nonetheless the book was worth my time. Also notable: I started this book in November, went away for six weeks, and still remembered the story vividly when I picked it up again upon my return. Sometimes I seem to forget a book almost as soon as I read it, but this one is as sticky as dried wine under an Italian sun.

I really enjoyed this book. I read it when it was first released, and had a lot of fun. There's a lot of humor in this book and for anyone who likes Italy and Italians it's a really fun read.