The instant New York Times bestseller from Chris Cleave--the
unforgettable novel about three lives entangled during World War II,
told "with dazzling prose, sharp English wit, and compassion...a
powerful portrait of war's effects on those who fight and those left
behind" (People, Book of the Week).London, 1939. The day war is
declared, Mary North leaves finishing school unfinished, goes straight
to the War Office, and signs up. Tom Shaw decides to ignore the
war--until he learns his roommate Alistair Heath has unexpectedly
enlisted. Then the conflict can no longer be avoided. Young, bright, and
brave, Mary is certain she'd be a marvelous spy. When she
is--bewilderingly--made a teacher, she finds herself defying prejudice
to protect the children her country would rather forget. Tom, meanwhile,
finds that he will do anything for Mary. And when Mary and Alistair
meet, it is love, as well as war, that will test them in ways they could
not have imagined, entangling three lives in violence and passion,
friendship, and deception, inexorably shaping their hopes and dreams.
The three are drawn into a tragic love triangle and--as war escalates
and bombs begin falling--further into a grim world of survival and
desperation. Set in London during the years of 1939-1942, when citizens
had slim hope of survival, much less victory; and on the strategic
island of Malta, which was daily devastated by the Axis barrage,
Everyone Brave is Forgiven features little-known history and a perfect
wartime love story inspired by the real-life love letters between Chris
Cleave's grandparents. This dazzling novel dares us to understand that,
against the great theater of world events, it is the intimate losses,
the small battles, the daily human triumphs that change us most.
