by Rosie Alison
First published 2010
Anna Sands clutches her small suitcase as she arrives at the Ashton estate in Yorkshire. The eight-year-old has been torn from her London home as Britain prepares for war with Hitler's Germany. Thomas and Elizabeth Ashton have opened their grand house to evacuated children, but Anna quickly senses something fragile in this childless couple's marriage. As the other evacuees settle into their new routines, Anna finds herself drawn deeper into the Ashtons' private world. She observes moments meant to remain hidden and becomes entangled in the adults' complicated emotions. When Elizabeth begins a love affair, Anna becomes both witness and unwitting participant in events that will reshape all their lives. The child who fled one kind of destruction now faces another as the adult world reveals its own capacity for both tenderness and betrayal.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, adult-fiction, british-literature, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Yorkshire, London
Period: World War II
432 pages · Hardcover · Magna Large Print Books
Content warnings: war