Jubilee
Ten-year old Jessamy Winter vanishes from a Silver Jubilee party in 1977. Her disappearance is woven into disturbing events in her family going back to the end of World War II Resolving the mystery will take another 25 years, by which time the bunting is going up again for the Golden Jubilee party of 2002.
Playing with the Moon
Two women, divided by fifty years, united by their grief . . .
Shattered by a recent bereavement, Minna and husband Tom retreat to an isolated village on the Dorset coast, hoping to find the solitude that will allow them to cope with their loss and rebuild their foundering marriage. Walking on the beach one day, they unearth a human skeleton. It is a discovery which will plunge Minna into a mystery which will consume her for months to come.
Growing increasingly preoccupied with the dead soldier’s fate, Minna befriends a melancholy elderly woman, Felix, who lived in the village during the war. As Minna coaxes Felix’s story from her, it becomes clear that the old woman knows more about the dead GI than she initially let on.
Playing with the Moon is an unforgettable novel of memory and loss, about the legacy of war, and the need to reconcile ourselves to our past in order to live with the present. Felix’s final shocking confession allows her to come to terms with an event that has cast a shadow over her life, and helps Minna to begin to accept her own loss.
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Restitution
How do you rebuild you life when the world lies in ruins?
In February 1945, Europe is in ruins and the Red Army is searing its way across Germany's eastern marches, revenging itself upon a petrified population. The war is over, but for some the fight for survival is only just beginning. Alix, the aristocratic daughter of a German resistance fighter, is alone and desperate to flee before the Reds come.
But when a snowstorm descends she must return to the shelter of her abandoned home. There, she is shocked to find her childhood sweetheart Gregor. By morning, the blizzard has died down but the Reds are back and Gregor has vanished. Alone and terrified, Alix runs for her life, and embarks upon an extraordinary and heartbreaking journey.
It will take sixty years and the fall of another empire - Communism - before the riddles of that fateful night can be deciphered. "Restitution" is a memorable novel about love and betrayal, hatred and heroism - a reminder that, even in the worst of times, the most courageous acts of kindness are possible.