by Chris Cleave
First published 2016
Mary shocks her wealthy political family in 1939 by volunteering for war work. She gets assigned to teach evacuated London children whom the countryside has rejected because they are disabled, mentally impaired, or black like her favorite pupil Zachary. Tom, an education administrator, watches his best friend Alastair enlist and tries to distract himself through his work supervising Mary. Their professional relationship turns romantic as London prepares for war. When Mary meets Alastair, an art restorer struggling with military life, the three form a complicated triangle of affection and loyalty. Bombs start falling on London as their personal relationships deepen and fracture. The war forces each character to confront their assumptions about duty, love, and courage while the city burns around them. Mary must choose between the two men while protecting her vulnerable students from a world that has already abandoned them.
Genres: romance, literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, war, adult-fiction
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: London
Period: 1939
418 pages · Hardcover · Simon & Schuster
Content warnings: ableism, racism