First published 2014
In 1914, Vivian Rose Spencer joins an archaeological dig in Turkey, where she works alongside Germans and Turks. She falls in love with archaeologist Tahsin Bey and helps him search for an ancient silver circlet. War erupts across Europe, transforming her colleagues into enemies overnight. Meanwhile, Lance Corporal Qayyum Gul from Peshawar fights for the British in European battlefields until he loses an eye and recovers in England. There he begins questioning his loyalty to the King. Qayyum returns home and shares a train car with Vivian Rose, who has brought her quest for the circlet to Peshawar in British India. Fifteen years pass before they meet again. This time both face tests of loyalty amid massacres and government cover-ups when a young man they both care about disappears.
Genres: romance, literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, adventure, 21st-century
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Turkey, Peshawar, British India, England
Period: 1914, World War I, 1920s
336 pages · Paperback · Atavist Books
Content warnings: war