All Hail Mark Sullivan!
With love in our hearts, there is nothing we cannot overcome.”
We’ve openly and repeatedly gushed over Mark Sullivan and Beneath the Scarlett Sky. No doubt, we have real love—big love—in our hearts for Mr. Sullivan. It won’t surprise that we jumped on Sullivan’s latest, will it? During one of the most explosive times in our world history, Emil and Adeline Martel must make a crucial decision: Do they wait for Stalin, ruthless and mad, to invade their homeland and risk being exiled to Siberia? Or do they follow corrupt, murderous Nazi officers who’ve pledged to protect and move “pure-blood Germans” into occupied Germany and other acquired territories? The Martels, German-born farmers living in Romania during World War II, must choose quickly. But they don’t want the lesser of two evils. So they set off in search of a better life. With their two small boys in tow, they navigate the landscape of war-torn Europe—danger everywhere. Their ultimate goal? A lush green valley surrounded by mountains and forests with a lazy flowing river beneath, free from persecution and evil.
The Martel’s search proves compelling. Of course, I couldn’t fathom a true story as stunning as Pino Lella’s—his World War II heroism was lights out. Unreal. Sullivan flexes his storytelling prowess here and makes me wonder if this one wasn’t meant to be? While speaking to a group in Montana about Pino, Sullivan first heard about the Martel’s experience no more than 200 yards away from the home that he originally listened to Pino’s story 11 years earlier. What are the odds, people? On a scale of 1 to Beneath the Scarlet Sky (5 lustrous stars in my opinion), I’d give The Last Green Valley a solid, shiny 4.5. I’m with the reviewer who gushed, “I hail Mark Sullivan for doing it again—taking very real, very human stories…and providing us with a work of historical fiction that we will not forget anytime soon.” That’s exactly right readers…count on it. All Hail Mark Sullivan!