A USA Today Bestseller
Inspired by fascinating, true, yet little-known events during World War
II, The Long Flight Home is a testament to the power of courage in our
darkest hours--a moving, masterfully written story of love and
sacrifice.
It is September 1940--a year into the war--and as German bombs fall on
Britain, fears grow of an impending invasion. Enemy fighter planes
blacken the sky around the Epping Forest home of Susan Shepherd and her
grandfather, Bertie. After losing her parents to influenza as a child,
Susan found comfort in raising homing pigeons with Bertie. All her birds
are extraordinary to Susan--loyal, intelligent, beautiful--but none more
so than Duchess. Hatched from an egg that Susan incubated in a bowl
under her grandfather's desk lamp, Duchess shares a special bond with
Susan and an unusual curiosity about the human world.
Thousands of miles away in Buxton, Maine, young crop-duster pilot Ollie
Evans decides to join Britain's Royal Air Force. His quest brings him to
Epping and the National Pigeon Service, where Susan is involved in a
new, covert mission to air-drop hundreds of homing pigeons in
German-occupied France. Many will not survive. Those that do will bring
home crucial information. Soon a friendship between Ollie and Susan
deepens, but when his plane is downed behind enemy lines, both know how
remote the chances of reunion must be. Yet Duchess will become an
unexpected lifeline, relaying messages between Susan and Ollie as war
rages on--and proving, at last, that hope is never truly lost.
"Hlad adeptly drives home the devastating civilian cost of the
war."
--Booklist
