Now in paperback, Anna Hope's deeply moving and highly accomplished debut novel about the life-changing effects of World War I on three very different women earned critical acclaim internationally. For readers of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society and Sebastian Faulks's Birdsong.


November 1920. As the people of London prepare for the coming home of the body of the Unknown Soldier from France, the unexpected ties that bind together the lives of three very different women are gradually revealed: Hettie is a young dance instructress at the Hammersmith Palais whose life changes in unexpected ways when she meets a wealthy, educated man. Evelyn works at the Pensions Office, processing claims for thousands of shell-shocked and wounded men. Embittered by grief for her lost lover, she looks for solace to her adored brother who has not been the same since he returned from the front. Ada, who has never received an official letter about her son's death, still waits for him to come home, much to the despair of her loving husband. One day a young man comes to Ada's door, and with him opens a wartime mystery that connects these three women, and will both mend and tear their hearts.