The Mill on the Po trilogy has been called the ?epic of the common man,? intended?in its author?s own words??to poeticize a century and to celebrate the tenacious humility of the little people of Italy, who have kept faith?and refused to be crushed by the almost overwhelming burden of their history.? The trilogy?s central theme is the birth of Italy as a nation; its central figures are Lazzaro Scacerni and his family, their mill on the river Po, and the river itself?stately, savage, source of both life and death.God Save You begins in the convulsive final years of the Napoleonic Wars. For a solitary act of heroism, Lazzaro Scacerni receives a treasure of pillaged jewels and establishes Saint Michael?s Mill on the Po. In the subsequent years, he and his family fight forces both natural and social?floods and famine, smugglers and scoundrels?in a determined, at times heroic, battle for sustenance and survival. Captivating from the first word to the last, God Save You is an auspicious beginning to Bacchelli?s capacious and passionate masterpiece, The Mill on the Po.