Announcing my new book

“All Roads Lead to Rome: Searching for the End of My Father’s War” recounts my journey to rediscover my father, who served as a U.S. Army commando in Italy in World War II. I travel into his past, from an immigrant family’s farm to supercharged military training to the European conflagration, which would be followed by a life lived with the scars of war. Research and exploration reveal the value and limits of memory. Returning to the ground where he fought, I step onto my father’s path to complete the trip he never achieved, a walk into liberated Rome.

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Advance Praise:

“A moving and compelling story about the enduring power of the past. Bill Thorness juxtaposes two Italian journeys—his father’s during the Anzio campaign of World War II and his own retracing of it—to find a parent whose damaged leg
disguised deeper wounds. He discovers a war’s lasting consequences.”—Richard White, Margaret Byrne Professor of American History emeritus, Stanford University, and author of Who Killed Jane Stanford?

“A touching and outstanding story, All Roads Lead to Rome is Bill Thorness’s journey to understand his father, which takes us from the farmland of North Dakota to the battlefields of World War II Italy.” —Bill Woon, past executive director of the First Special Service Force Association and son of Force veteran Dave Woon, 2nd Company, 2nd Regiment

“All Roads Lead to Rome is a deftly woven history of one man’s attempt to understand his father’s taciturn and damaged life by hiking the route of his father’s army commando unit as it fought its way north from the Anzio beaches to liberate Rome from the Nazis in World War II. A warm memoir and a historical resource, All Roads Lead to Rome stands as a heartfelt attempt to bridge a generation gap and probe the brutal and fiercely debilitating impact of war.”—Kit Bakke, author of Protest on Trial and Miss Alcott’s E-mail

“Any hope that humanity will more quickly move beyond war as a method of conflict resolution will likely come as a result of leaders who, whether personally or peripherally, finally acknowledge and speak to the damaging ramifications of
war on present and future generations. Books such as All Roads Lead to Rome are vital for what they can add to this awareness, and it’s one of the best books I’ve read so far on the cross-generational impact of military service, particularly
combat.”—Tracy Crow, coeditor of It’s My Country Too: Women’s Military Stories from the American Revolution to Afghanistan

“All Roads Leads to Rome: starts as a journey of discovery and becomes one of self-discovery. A masterful accomplishment.” —Steve Olson, author of The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age

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