Lisa Scottoline’s Eternal (2021) is a historical fiction novel about love, loss, and forgiveness that takes place before, during, and after World War II. A graduate of law school at the University of Pennsylvania, Scottoline, the author of over 30 books, brings her legal knowledge to her writing, both in Eternal and other works. In Eternal, her legal knowledge contextualizes the character of Massimo Simone, a Jewish lawyer, and the race laws targeting Jewish people in Rome before and during World War II. The novel’s union of fact and fiction enlivens its handling of legacy in the face of war.

This guide refers to the 2021 paperback edition published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Content Warning: Eternal includes antisemitism and antisemitic slurs, war-related violence, and murder (including infant death and genocide). In this guide, ethnic and racial slurs are sometimes quoted and obscured.

Plot Summary

A historical fiction novel told in five parts—each of which begins with epigraphs foreshadowing the parts’ narrative arcs—Eternal dramatizes the impact of World War II on Rome, focusing on the interconnected stories of friends Elisabetta, Marco, and Sandro. They find themselves drawn to each other in unexpected ways, as they navigate their lives during the rise of Fascist rule, led by Benito Mussolini. The novel opens 20 years after the main narrative, introducing Elisabetta D’Orfeo, who kept her son’s paternity a secret for 13 years.

Part 1 introduces Elisabetta D’Orfeo, Marco Terrizzi, and Sandro Simone, friends who often sit by the Tiber River after class. Elisabetta, the daughter of a dismissive mother, Serafina, and Ludovico, who has an alcohol dependency, decides she will share her first kiss with her friend Marco, a talented cyclist. However, while discussing Fascism, Sandro surprises her with a kiss. As Italy descends further into Fascist rule, Elisabetta works as a waitress at Casa Servano, a small restaurant in Trastevere lorded over by Nonna, to support her parents. Recognizing Elisabetta’s talent as a writer, Nonna offers her a chance to wait on a prolific writer one night. However, Elisabetta’s father, intoxicated, interrupts. As she attempts to get him to leave, he vomits on the writer. When the two return home, Elisabetta’s mother abandons them. Meanwhile, Sandro continues his study of mathematics at two educational institutions, his liceo and La Sapienza, a university in Rome, the latter being where he meets Professor Levi-Civita, a real-life professor of mathematics. Marco struggles with his family, attempting to please his father Beppe. He gets a job at the Fascist headquarters in Rome, Palazzo Braschi, while one of his older brothers, Aldo, secretly joins an anti-Fascist movement. Their father, a cyclist in his own right and a proponent of Fascism, approves of Marco.

Although Marco can’t read because of his undiagnosed dyslexia, he continues to impress his Fascist employers, while his brother Aldo participates in a plot that will kill Marco’s boss, Commendatore Buonacorso. Marco and Sandro both ask Elisabetta out. She tries to maintain their friendship, as both boys maintain a friendly competition for her love. Mussolini begins to incorporate antisemitic language into his speeches, as he grows closer to Adolf Hitler. Sandro’s sister Rosa worries about the increasing antisemitism in Europe and urges the family to leave. At the end of Part 1, Marco visits Elisabetta with flowers, only to discover that his father had an affair with Elisabetta’s mother. Elisabetta’s father destroys his flowers.

Part 2 begins with Marco asking his older brother Emedio, a priest living in Vatican City, if Ludovico’s claims are true. Emedio confirms their father’s affair, and Marco cycles into the dark city. Later, at school, the principal asks to test Marco, explaining he can’t read. Embarrassed, Marco threatens the principal with Fascist intervention and leaves school permanently. Embedding himself in Fascist ideology, he discovers his brother Aldo was murdered by secret police. Marco’s boss wants to fire him, but Marco bargains to bring information about the anti-Fascists. He successfully implicates the leader of the group, having noticed the man’s wife at his father’s bar, Bar GiroSport.

Sandro’s love for Elisabetta is resisted by his family, who advocate for a Jewish wife. Furthermore, Italy’s newly passed race laws make his pursuit more difficult. Yet, Sandro’s sister Rosa secretly marries her English boyfriend, David. Sandro and other Jewish people begin to feel greater pressure, with Sandro quitting school due to the race laws. Despite being a supporter of Mussolini, his lawyer father Massimo loses his Party membership. As Mussolini and his government target Jewish people, Sandro’s family lose his father’s business and property; their application for exemption from the race laws fails. Sandro withdraws from Elisabetta, and she is left to deal with her father’s cirrhosis (liver scarring) alone. As her father dies, he apologizes for his shortcomings. At Nonna’s behest, Elisabetta sells most of her possessions and moves in with Nonna.

Part 3 delves into Sandro and his father Massimo’s hardships, the latter of whom is helped by Marco’s father Beppe, who experienced a change of heart regarding Fascism. Sandro’s sister Rosa returns from England, horrified by her parents’ aging and reduced circumstances. Sandro’s mother, Gemma, loses her job as a doctor due to the race laws. Meanwhile, Nonna tells Elisabetta about her mother’s affair with Marco’s father; Nona forbids her from dating Marco. Elisabetta proceeds anyway, and the couple attend a party at the Fascist headquarters in Rome—which Mussolini also attends. Marco fixes a sash that falls on stage, and Mussolini personally thanks him. As Marco’s situation improves, Sandro’s worsens. The boys meet, discussing the possibility of Italy entering World War II, which will exacerbate Jewish people’s mistreatment.

Elisabetta tends to Nonna, who caught pneumonia, and continues to see Marco, taking a ride with him in his boss’s car. He proposes to her, but she realizes she loves Sandro more, and asks for time. Marco meets Sandro on the Spanish Steps after having been beaten by secret police for helping Sandro’s family. Sandro lies about no longer loving Elisabetta. He helps Marco win Elisabetta’s love by leaving a journal for her birthday, signing it from Marco. As Elisabetta considers the journal, she decides to accept Marco’s proposal. One of her father’s friends sees her with Marco and denounces her, saying people like Marco broke Ludovico’s hands, taking away his ability to paint; this incident is what led to Ludovico’s alcoholism in the first place. Discovering Marco didn’t give her the journal, she breaks up with him and visits Sandro. As the pair talk, Marco discovers them, hurling an antisemitic slur at Sandro.

Part 4 details a deteriorating Rome, as Allied bombing weakens Italy and food grows scarce. Nonna and Elisabetta visit a group of merchants in Trastevere, joined by Marco’s father Beppe. Antisemitism infiltrates this group, as all but Nonna and Beppe take signs forbidding Jewish customers. Nonna is still ill, and Elisabetta types up her novel A Talkative Girl. Nonna dies, and Elisabetta reads her the novel. Nonna’s distant relatives arrive, pushing Elisabetta to stay in her room and grow vegetables on the roof. She takes over Casa Servano, which becomes popular with Nazis. Marco grows disillusioned with Fascism and joins his father in fighting Nazis. The Allies demand an armistice, and Mussolini, previously imprisoned, gains his freedom. The Nazis prepare to take over Rome, and Marco, his father, and other partisans defend it. The Nazis take control and demand 50 kilograms of gold, or they will deport 200 Jewish people.

Part 5 sees Jewish people rounded up by Nazis to be to be sent to labor camps. The Nazis both confiscate and destroy rare books and treasures in a local synagogue. Sandro reunites with Elisabetta, and they have sex. An ill Rosa remains at a hospital, and Gemma avoids capture by dressing as a nun. While Elisabetta, Marco, and Beppe work to help Sandro and Massimo, the secret police hold Gemma and Marco’s wife Maria hostage. They kill Gemma, and Beppe and Marco kill them; Beppe, wounded, dies. Marco and Elisabetta attempt to free Sandro and Massimo at a transit camp north of Rome. Massimo remains at the camp, unable to run. Sandro escapes, only to be killed at the Modena train station while protecting Marco from Nazis. Marco realizes Elisabetta is carrying Sandro’s child and marries her, offering to raise the child as his own. Rosa ends up the only surviving Simone. In the present, Marco and Elisabetta tell their son Sandro about his paternity. In the Epilogue, an older Elisabetta titles her friend Sandro’s story Eternal.