Category: Historical Fiction
Language: EnglishKeywords: Drama
Written by David Baldacci
Read by David Baldacci, Stewart Crank, Alexandra Boulton, John Lee, Nicola F. Delgado, Matthew Lloyd Davies, Joe Pitts
Format: M4B
Bitrate: Variable
Unabridged
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Calamity of Souls comes a David Baldacci novel, set in London in 1944, about a bereaved book shop owner and two teenagers scarred by the second world warâand the healing and hope they find in one another.
Fourteen-year-old Charlie Matters is up to no good, but for a very good reason. Without parents, peerage, or merit, ducking school but barred from actual work, he steals what he needs, living day-to-day until heâs old enough to enlist to fight the Germans. After barely surviving the Blitz, Charlie knows thereâs no telling when a falling bomb might end his life.
Fifteen-year-old Molly Wakefield has just returned to a nearly unrecognizable London. One of millions of people to have been evacuated to the countryside via âOperation Pied Piper,â Molly has been away from her parentsâfrom her homeâfor nearly five years. Her return, however, is not the homecoming sheâd hoped for as sheâs confronted by a devastating reality: neither of her parents are there, only her old nanny, Mrs. Pride.
Without guardians and stability, Charlie and Molly find an unexpected ally and protector in Ignatius Oliver, and solace at his book shop, The Book Keep, where “a book a day keeps the bombs away”. Mourning the recent loss of his wife, Ignatius forms a kinship with both children, and in each otherâover the course of the greatest armed conflict the world had ever seenâthey rediscover the spirit of family each has lost.
But Charlieâs escapades in the city have not gone unnoticed, and someoneâs been following Molly since she returned to London. And Ignatius is reeling from a secret Imogen long kept from him while she was aliveâsomething so shocking it resulted in her death, and his life being turned upside down.
As bombs continue to bear down on the city, Charlie, Molly, and Ignatius learn that while the perils of war rage on, their coming together and trusting one another may be the only way for them to survive.
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Calamity of Souls comes a David Baldacci novel, set in London in 1944, about a bereaved book shop owner and two teenagers scarred by the second world warâand the healing and hope they find in one another.
Fourteen-year-old Charlie Matters is up to no good, but for a very good reason. Without parents, peerage, or merit, ducking school but barred from actual work, he steals what he needs, living day-to-day until heâs old enough to enlist to fight the Germans. After barely surviving the Blitz, Charlie knows thereâs no telling when a falling bomb might end his life.
Fifteen-year-old Molly Wakefield has just returned to a nearly unrecognizable London. One of millions of people to have been evacuated to the countryside via âOperation Pied Piper,â Molly has been away from her parentsâfrom her homeâfor nearly five years. Her return, however, is not the homecoming sheâd hoped for as sheâs confronted by a devastating reality: neither of her parents are there, only her old nanny, Mrs. Pride.
Without guardians and stability, Charlie and Molly find an unexpected ally and protector in Ignatius Oliver, and solace at his book shop, The Book Keep, where “a book a day keeps the bombs away”. Mourning the recent loss of his wife, Ignatius forms a kinship with both children, and in each otherâover the course of the greatest armed conflict the world had ever seenâthey rediscover the spirit of family each has lost.
But Charlieâs escapades in the city have not gone unnoticed, and someoneâs been following Molly since she returned to London. And Ignatius is reeling from a secret Imogen long kept from him while she was aliveâsomething so shocking it resulted in her death, and his life being turned upside down.
As bombs continue to bear down on the city, Charlie, Molly, and Ignatius learn that while the perils of war rage on, their coming together and trusting one another may be the only way for them to survive.