A hero of two worlds

the long version

"'A Hero of Two Worlds' is a book of sweeping historical fiction set in Rome in the early 1860s, when the great fight to transform Italy into a country was raging. It traces the life of a young American sculptor named Rufus Trask from his arrival there in 1847 to his soldiering in the Union Army in the American Civil War sixteen years later. The story offers a rich portrait of life in the American expatriot community in the city, teeming with artists and flaneurs, intrigue and illicit affairs. It also plumbs Trask's double life as a popular American devoted to sculpting and a lethal republican fighter bent on ending authoritarian papal rule. He becomes a hunted man and escapes to a remote mountain village, where he falls in love. Trask returns to Rome, where his life collapses while sparring with papal spies and French troops occupying the city. He runs for his life and sails to America, where he joins another republican causes and fulfills his destiny as a hero of two worlds."--Back cover.