Bohjalian does a masterful job of crafting an intense, suspenseful story with elegant prose. He blends art & history with suspense in a way that keeps you turning the pages hoping to learn more about the mystery while simultaneously enjoying being immersed in the poetry of his words. Graphic & chilling yet so artful. A really wonderful read.

It was about a 50-50 split on who liked this book and who didn't, but the likes had just a few more. We liked the history part and the build up, however the ending felt unfinished like the author was hurrying things up. We didn't like the choice of "bad guy." It seemed unconnected to the story itself. We realized that 80% of our discussion was about the first 3/4 of the book because that's the part we liked the best.

Due to some serious family illnesses, it took me well over a month to get through this book. The length of time had nothing to do with a difficult story, shallow characters or lack of an author's talent. I love historical fiction stories and this book did NOT disappoint. In Italy towards the end of WWII, the story takes you on a journey of one wealthy family's plight of survival in the toughest of times. Some 10 years later a murderer appears to have a master plan and one that involves the same family. Two stories -- one family -- and one Estrucan tomb ruins. The weaving of both time periods is beautifully performed and there is much image projection relayed by the author as to the effects and ravages of war on a country and community. What does one do to survive? How far is one willing to cross the line to protect loved ones? How does one live with the repercussions of such decisions? You can't stay in the dark for long when reading The Light in the Ruins.

Too complicated for a casual working gals group.

It was a very good read!! Great discussion.....

A little suspenseful and kept me guessing but on the other hand it was confusing because its so many characters that I couldn’t really keep up with what was going on. Wealthy family with a lot of art and artifacts living in Tuscany the middle of a war kinda sorta friends with both sides, young daughter of said wealthy family falls in love with I guess the enemy but never sees him again, the family is targeted by a serial killer, a partisan female detective tries to catch serial killer before he murders anymore of the wealthy family which turns out to be one of her partisan allies. I did enjoy reading it but it was a lot going on.