Beneath a Scarlet Sky
Mark Sullivan tells the true story of Pino Lella, a Milanese teenager who, in the closing years of World War II, helped Jewish refugees escape over the Italian Alps into Switzerland and then, drafted into the German army to keep him out of the front lines, became the personal driver of Hans Leyers, one of the highest-ranking Nazi officers in Italy. From the cab of a staff Daimler, Pino fed Allied intelligence about troop movements, slave-labor sites, and atrocities while pretending to be a faithful chauffeur, all under the eye of an SS apparatus that would have shot him on suspicion. Sullivan spent years interviewing Lella in his old age and reconstructing the record. The result is fast-moving popular history dressed as a novel, romantic, harrowing, and largely unknown to American readers until this book.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about Beneath a Scarlet Sky
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
In 1943 Milan, teenage Pino Lella is sent into the Alps to help Jewish refugees cross into Switzerland. To keep him out of the army, his parents push him into a job as a personal driver for a German general.
Yes. Beneath a Scarlet Sky is based on the real life of Pino Lella, an Italian teenager who guided Jewish refugees over the Alps during World War II and later spied on the Nazis as the personal driver of a senior German officer. Mark Sullivan interviewed Lella extensively.
A film adaptation has been in development since 2018 with Tom Holland attached to play Pino Lella. As of 2025, the project remains in development with no confirmed release date.
Beneath a Scarlet Sky was written by Mark Sullivan, published in 2017 by Lake Union Publishing.
Beneath a Scarlet Sky is 576 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Beneath a Scarlet Sky takes most readers 9 to 12 hours to finish.
Beneath a Scarlet Sky is a standalone novel by Mark Sullivan, not part of a series.
Beneath a Scarlet Sky is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.