Victory of the People

A historical fiction set during WW2. Victory of the People is a haunting, deeply personal narrative of survival, identity, and resilience, told through the eyes of Ralph Theodore Nicoletti—a boy exiled, a youth indoctrinated, and a man forged in the fires of war. Orphaned in 1930s America and deported alone to fascist Italy, Ralph is raised under Mussolini's regime, forced into the black boots of the Opera Nazionale Balilla and taught to worship power, obedience, and empire. But Ralph never fully surrenders to the system—quiet defiance flickers behind his eyes, even as he recites the dictator's oaths. As the Axis collapses, Ralph seizes a narrow chance to flee, escaping fascism only to find himself drafted into the U.S. Navy. The country that once cast him out now needs him to fight in its name. From brutal sea patrols to the unspeakable carnage of the Battle of Manila, Ralph is thrown into the heart of World War II's deadliest urban combat, bearing witness to atrocities that no man should see and enduring losses no soul should carry. Told in vivid, memoir-style scenes and laced with flashbacks, unsent letters, and ghostly reflections, Victory of the People is not just a war story. It's a reckoning with exile, ideology, and the meaning of home. It asks: What does it mean to survive a war that never truly ends? And who do we become when every nation we've called our own has betrayed us?