FROM THE ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF THE LAST PEARL AND DANCING AT THE
VICTORY CAFE, this is a beautiful novel about family secrets, wartime
betrayals and redemption.
May 1941 and the island of Crete is invaded by paratroopers from the
air. After a lengthy fight, thousands of British and Commonwealth
soldiers are forced to take to the hills or become escaping PoWs,
sheltered by the Cretan villagers.
Sixty years later, Lois West and her young son, Alex, invite
feisty Great Aunt Pen to a special eighty-fifth birthday celebration on
Crete, knowing she has not been back there since the war.
Penelope George - formerly Giorgidiou - is reluctant to go but is
persuaded by the fact it is the 60th anniversary of the Battle. It is
time for her to return and make the journey she never thought she'd dare
to. On the outward voyage from Athens, she relives her experiences in
the city from her early years as a trainee nurse to those last dark days
stranded on the island, the last female foreigner.
When word spreads of her visit, and old Cretan friends and family come
to greet her, Lois and Alex are caught up in her epic pilgrimage and the
journey which leads her to a reunion with the friend she thought she had
lost forever - and the truth behind a secret buried deep in the past...
Praise for Leah Fleming
'I enjoyed it enormously.It's a moving and compelling story about a
lifetime's journey in search of the truth' RACHEL HORE
'A born storyteller' KATE ATKINSON
