An enjoyable experience, reading The Art Lover

This was a book and an author I have never heard of - but as friends' recommendations goes, it was a good one! The author, Andromeda Romano-Lax has a Greek first name, Italian and German heritage, and she married into a Jewish family. She grew up in Chicago, worked as a travel writer and freelance journalist before becoming a writer and living in Anchorage, Alaska. It seems this book unpacks something about individuals' search for meaning in Europe between the wars. The novel opens in Munich in 1938, where an introspective young German, Ernst Vogler is learning to make sense of the present by understanding Greek and Roman art. He works on the Sonderprojekte, which is a quest by Hitler, to amass European masterpieces, to promote human strength and beauty in natural settings.The book opens with the disappearance to Dachau of his artistic mentor, but he is given a book and a personal story, which match and underpin his work project. He is sent to deliver the classical sculpture "the discuss thrower" from Rome to Germany. This simple plan slowly turns into a dangerous detour of deception, corruption, lies and murder, across the beautiful Italian countryside. Ernst is both naive and unprepared for the situation that evolves, largely involving twin brother drivers being chased by a greedy German diplomat. There is sufficient depth of character of the three young men who share the front seat of the truck while the sculpture is hidden in the back. Gradually, the Italian family life emerges and it is not surprising that Ernst realises a few days in Italy can change his life; the advice given to him by his mentor! The elder sister's story matches his own in strange ways and he learns more about himself as a result. Then it is quite a treat to read forward 10 years to when he is tasked to return the sculpture to Rome and he revisits the Piedmontese hillside where the family lived...