Review: Forget the Past (Fear of the Past #1)

Original Title: Forget the Past
Series: Fear of the Past #1
Author: Claude Nougat
Published Date: May 20th, 2011
Genre: History

Antonio Bellomo, preferred to be called as Tony, is a born computer genius and was offered a high-tech job with a heavy salary at the age of 13.  In spite of having everything, Tony feels his life to be 'lost' or 'not lived'.  So, giving up his boring life, he travels to Sicily to look for the palace, which once belonged to his ancestors or so were the words of his father.

Disappointed that the palace of his ancestors has been turned to the museum and none of the museum's pictures show that any of the Bellomo family has been lived in, Tony just roams around the museum, when he finds a open door.  He enters to find it full of strange people with different century costumes, claiming that they were the Bellomo family members of various centuries, and they were dead and waiting for the Judgement Day.  The place named as Circolo di Conversazione meant only for conversation.  The people in the Circolo speak with one another all the time and re-enact their lives to know their mistakes, before the Judgement Day.

While Tony learns about the past of his ancestors, he never thinks that he will fall in love with one of them.   What will happen when a mortal man falls for his ancestor, who is a ghost.  Tony's experience and his bonding with the 'people of the past' are intriguing and was taken in a satisfying way.

The historical times were as descriptive as possible.  There were times, I keep thinking, how very different the lives of all people are.  And most of them, if they had given a second chance, would do the same things again, would fall in love with the same person and would die for the same reason.

The author, although descriptive about the historical situations and the Italian word references, failed to explain the present-day Tony.  Due to this, it was difficult, for first half of the book, to know how Tony feels about his situation.  Being a computer genius is definitely not an easy feat, even if he is a 'born' genius.  I felt like I needed to know more about Tony, to realize his need to go away from his well-settled life, his desire to visit Sicily of all the places and his bonding with his father.  That is the one thing I found lacking in the book.

"Forget the Past" is an easy and entertaining read, where the readers keep thinking about how influencing our ancestors could be in our present lives.  Well, a book's success is to keep the reader's thinking about it, even after several hours of completion.  This book made me wish that I know more about my ancestors, even though its not so dramatic or eventful as Tony's.

'Fear of the Past' Series order:

1.  Forget the Past
2.  Reclaim the Present - Read review here
3.  Remember the Future - Read review here

The series is about Tony's life, as he struggles with his heritage (book 1), tries to claim his own life (book 2) and his destiny (book 3).  It must be read in the above order.