“Origo’s diary is a compelling story of heroism, compassion, and—in the author’s words—‘the most primitive traditions of ungrudging hospitality, uncalculating brotherhood…the shared, simple acts of everyday life.” —Vic Sussman, The Washington Post
“[War in Val d’Orcia] is a remarkably moving document that, like the best of the elemental war stories, eventually becomes a statement about the unplanned nature and folly of war.” —Herbert Mitgang, The New York Times
“A welcome rediscovery, evoking a unique, strange moment in civilian/soldier wartime-history with spare, vital immediacy.” —Kirkus Reviews
“A remarkable war diary.” —Daily Telegraph
“It is jolting to recall, through Origo’s sober and self-effacing prose, the atrocious conditions of the summer of 1944.” —Financial Times