Early One Morning (novel)

In 1944 in Rome, Italy, a woman named Chiara Ravello rescues Daniele Levi, a Jewish child, before he is deported by the Nazis with his mother. In a flash-forward, Chiara lives alone in Rome in the 1970s and reflects on her life.

Reviewing it for The Guardian, Samantha Harvey described the novel as "incredibly sure-footed, a big, generous and absorbing piece of storytelling, fearless, witty and full of flair."[1] She added that it was "a surprisingly humorous novel, in which the characters are tenderly mocked or mock themselves".[1] In The Scotsman, Allan Massie suggested some passages "might with advantage have been shortened", but he concluded that the novel was "engrossing".[2]

However, in another review for The Guardian, Lucy Scholes suggested the conclusion was "a little flat".[3] In The Independent, Julie McDowall agreed with Scholes, writing that the "ending is tied up far too fast to be satisfying"[4] Reviewing it for The National, Clare Dight also criticized the end, arguing: "The reader’s most serious criticism will come on the last page, however, when the ink runs out before a final reckoning."[5] Meanwhile, in The Jewish Chronicle, Hephzibah Anderson regretted that Bailey did not write more about the Holocaust, and she concluded: "Baily's decision to look away from the horrors that she nonetheless exploits is a cop-out."[6]