Summary

Book 3 begins with the time marker “1941-1942” (141) and opens in July of 1941. Paolo and Antonia intend to be married the following spring, and Sofia begins dating Saul in secret, believing that her family would never allow her to marry a Jew.

In the weeks following Pearl Harbor, Saul becomes even more preoccupied about the War, and Sofia offers to go home with him to help him feel settled. She feels disappointed to have given her virginity to Saul, breaking the racial and religious rules of her family, when sleeping with him does not even seem to help him feel better. Sofia and Saul avoid each other for the next few weeks, Christmas 1941 being followed by New Year’s 1942.

Sofia is pregnant. The pressure of having no one she can talk to sends her back to Antonia, who is in the midst of planning her...