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1 of 1 copy available
Inspired by a remarkable true story, a young teacher evacuates children to safety across perilous waters, in a moving and triumphant new novel from New York Times bestselling author Hazel Gaynor.
1940, Kent: Alice King is not brave or daring—she’s happiest finding adventure through the safe pages of books. But times of war demand courage, and as the threat of German invasion looms, a plane crash near her home awakens a strength in Alice she’d long forgotten. Determined to do her part, she finds a role perfectly suited to her experience as a schoolteacher—to help evacuate Britain’s children overseas.
1940, London: Lily Nichols once dreamed of using her mathematical talents for more than tabulating the cost of groceries, but life, and love, charted her a different course. With two lively children and a loving husband, Lily’s humble home is her world, until war tears everything asunder. With her husband gone and bombs raining down, Lily is faced with an impossible choice: keep her son and daughter close, knowing she may not be able to protect them, or enroll them in a risky evacuation scheme, where safety awaits so very far away.
When a Nazi U-boat torpedoes the S. S. Carlisle carrying a ship of children to Canada, a single lifeboat is left adrift in the storm-tossed Atlantic. Alice and Lily, strangers to each other—one on land, the other at sea—will quickly become one another’s very best hope as their lives are fatefully entwined.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Awards
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Release date
June 13, 2023 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593684221
- File size: 301404 KB
- Duration: 10:27:55
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Billie Fulford-Brown's performance is heartbreaking and deft. She captures the gripping story of two women and their choices, and its historical setting. In 1940, as Nazi forces bomb London, the government offers children refuge via passage to several countries. Lily, young and working class, elects to send her son and daughter to Canada. On the ship, her children meet Alice, one of the support volunteers. When a U-boat attacks the ship, forcing Alice and the children into a lifeboat, they soon discover help is not on the way. Gaynor's audiobook, based on true events, is both riveting and inspiring. Fulford-Brown demonstrates mastery of the emotional depth and impact of the characters. S.P.C. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine -
June 10, 2024
Two women fight to keep hope alive in Gaynor's (When We Were Young & Brave) latest, set in 1940s Britain as bombs begin falling on London. With the nation mobilizing for action, Lily Nichols makes the difficult decision to evacuate her two children to Canada through the Children's Overseas Reception Board (CORB). Teacher Alice King, a newly hired CORB support volunteer, is put in charge of Lily's children. When the ship on which they're traveling is torpedoed by a German submarine, Alice and the children are forced into a lifeboat to battle for survival for days on end as they make their way toward land. Narrator Billie Fulford-Brown provides a luminous performance, tapping into the characters' range of emotions, from Lily's uncertainty and fear to Alice's determined positivity and generosity. Fulford-Brown's depiction of Lily receiving a letter informing her of the attack is piercingly sad, powerfully portraying the courage and deep love of a mother caught in unthinkable circumstances. VERDICT Based on true events, this emotionally resonant historical novel is both sobering and inspiring. For those who enjoyed Laura Spence-Ash's Beyond That, the Sea or Gloria Goldreich's The Paris Children.--Sarah Hashimoto
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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