First published 2005
Eight-year-old Madeleine McCarthy bounces with excitement as her family settles into their new home at Centralia air base in Ontario. The year is 1962, and the McCarthys have just returned to Canada after a decade stationed at Allied bases across France and Germany. To Madeleine, her military family seems perfect: attractive, happy, representatives of a bright new world. The base itself appears equally ideal, and she views their arrival as the start of a grand adventure. But as nuclear threats suddenly grip the Western world, even the seemingly protected environment of Centralia cannot escape the larger tensions. Madeleine filters everything through her young perspective as she navigates this new world, unaware that destructive forces have already taken root in her supposedly perfect surroundings. The story unfolds through her innocent eyes as she discovers that neither her family nor their new home is quite as flawless as they first appeared.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, coming-of-age, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, innocent-protagonist
Setting: Canada, Centralia Air Base, France, Germany, Ontario
Period: 1962
923 pages · Paperback · Mondadori