Stones in Water begins in the wartime Venice of the early 1940s. Young boys imitate the drilling of Italian soldiers, shout war slogans, and wish they, too, were old enough to carry a gun—if only on Sundays like their fathers and older brothers in the nearby campo. Jews are under new restrictions now. They have lived for hundreds of years in their quiet, beautiful ghetto, as in many European cities. But there are new things happening to the Venetian Jews, such as having to wear the yellow star on their arms now that the Germans and Italians are allies. Roberto's parents have told him to not go into a Jewish home, or even be seen talking to a Jew like his friend Samuele, who is in the same grade. But Roberto does not listen. Samuele is his friend—and this friendship is about to be...