Road to Valor: A True Story of WWII Italy, the Nazis, and the Cyclist Who Inspired a Nation

基本信息出版社:Crown (2012年6月12日)精装:336页正文语种:英语ISBN:030759064X条形码:9780307590640商品重量:617 gASIN:030759064X您想告诉我们您发现了更低的价格?

商品描述内容简介Road to Valoris the inspiring, against-the-odds story of Gino Bartali, the cyclist who made the greatestcomeback in Tour de France history and secretly aided the Italian resistance during World War II. 

   Gino Bartali is best known as an Italian cycling legend: the man who not only won the Tour de France twice, but also holds the record for the longest time span between victories.  During the ten years that separated his hard-won triumphs, his actions, both on and off the racecourse, ensured him a permanent place in Italian hearts and minds.

   InRoad to Valor,Aili and Andres McConnon chronicle Bartali’s journey, starting in impoverished rural Tuscany where a scrawny, mischievous boy painstakingly saves his money to buy a bicycle and before long, is racking up wins throughout the country. At the age of 24, he stuns the world by winning the Tour de France and becomes an international sports icon.

   But Mussolini’s Fascists try to hijack his victory for propaganda purposes, derailing Bartali’s career, and as the Nazis occupy Italy, Bartali undertakes secret and dangerous activities to help those being targeted.  He shelters a family of Jews in an apartment he financed with his cycling winnings and is able to smugglecounterfeit identity documents hidden in his bicycle past Fascist and Nazi checkpoints because the soldiers recognize him as a national hero in training. 

   After the grueling wartime years, Bartali fights to rebuild his career as Italy emerges from the rubble.  In 1948, the stakes are raised when midway through the Tour de France, an assassination attempt in Rome sparks nationwide political protests and riots.  Despite numerous setbacks and a legendary snowstorm in the Alps, the chain-smoking, Chianti-loving, 34-year-old underdog comes back and wins the most difficult endurance competition on earth.  Bartali’s inspiring performance helps unite his fractured homeland and restore pride and spirit to a country still reeling from war and despair.

   Set in Italy and France against the turbulent backdrop of an unforgiving sport and threatening politics,Road to Valoris the breathtaking account of one man’s unsung heroism and his resilience in the face of adversity.  Based on nearly ten years of research in Italy, France, and Israel, including interviews with Bartali’s family, former teammates,a Holocaust survivor Bartali saved, and many others,Road to Valoristhe first book ever written about Bartali in English and the only book written in any language to fully explore the scope of Bartali’s wartime work.  An epic tale of courage, comeback, and redemption, it is the untold story of one of the greatest athletes of the twentieth century.作者简介AILI McCONNON is a Canadian journalist living in New York who has been a staff writer forBusinessWeekand has also written for theNew York Times, theWall Street Journal, and theGuardian.

ANDRES McCONNON has been a historical researcher for several books. Aili and Andres are siblings, born in Toronto.