WHAT WE MAY BECOME

Messineo follows The Fire by Night (2017), her first war story, with a tale of an American nurse battling PTSD.

Tuscany, 1945. Diana Bolsena, an American Red Cross nurse, has gone through hell struggling to save her patients when she’s left behind, penniless and starving, in a small town. Diana’s chance to escape comes when she hears of a child care job. Arriving at a villa seemingly untouched by the war, she’s engaged by Signora Bugari to care for a 9-year-old boy, her ward. All goes well until the house is turned upside down by the hiring of new staff members in preparation for the arrival of the palpably evil Herr Adler, who holds some mysterious power over Bugari. Bugari warns Diana against Adler, who’s ransacking the house looking for something, and they all live in fear until Adler is found drowned in the pool. When the local police ignore Diana’s report, she returns to the villa with DI Giacomo Travere, who says he just happens to be passing through the town. The personable English speaker, whom Diana finds attractive, seems less interested in solving the murder than in searching for something hidden in the villa. The discovery shows Travere is not who she thought, and a battle ensues between them over the nature of good and evil.

A brutally atmospheric tale of the horrors of war.