The breathtaking new novel from the multi-award-winning author of THE OTHER H&. `A cracker` Stylist, 10 Exciting Books in 2016 ` His best book to date` Esquire, 10 best novels of 2016 Guardian Literary Highlight of 2016 Independent Best Book to read in 2016 Irish News Top Picks for 2016 Washington Post 20 Books We Can`t Wait to Read in 2016 When war is declared, Mary North leaves finishing school unfinished, goes straight to the War Office, & signs up. Tom Shaw decides to give it a miss
- until his flatmate Alistair unexpectedly enlists, & the conflict can no longer be avoided. Young, bright & brave, Mary is certain she`d be a marvelous spy. When she is
- bewilderingly
- made a teacher, she instead finds herself defying prejudice to protect the children her country would rather forget. Tom, meanwhile, finds that he will do anything for Mary. & when Mary & Alistair meet, it is love, as well as war, that will test them in ways they could not have imagined, entangling three lives in violence & passion, friendship & deception, inexorably shaping their hopes & dreams. In a powerful combination of both humour & heartbreak, this dazzling novel weaves little-known history, & a perfect love story, through the vast sweep of the Second World War
- daring us to understand that, against the great theatre of world events, it is the intimate losses, the small battles, the daily human triumphs, that change us most.