Anna Ferruzzo

Set mostly in Rome between 1940 and 1948 “La Storia” looks at fascism, World War II and Italy’s early postwar period through a female prism. Ida, a half Jewish widow with a teen-age son named Nino, is raped by a drunken German soldier and gets pregnant with Useppe. The tale is centered on how she survives her predicament.

Don Matteo is a thoroughly ordinary Catholic priest with an extraordinary ability to read people and solve crimes. He’s a parish priest who never met an unjustly accused person he didn’t want to help.