"Dazzles from start to finish." --Georgia Hunter, New York
Times bestselling author of We Were the Lucky Ones
Set against the backdrop of World War II, a sweeping, atmospheric novel
of sacrifice, ambition, and commitment, and the secrets we keep from the
ones we love
It's 1927 when Alec and June meet as children in a tranquil English
village. Alec, an orphan, anchors himself in the night sky and longs for
adventures. June memorizes maps and railway timetables, imagining a
future bright with possibilities.
As the years pass, their loves feels inevitable, but soon the Second
World War separates them. Alec enlists as a Royal Air Force pilot flying
daredevil fighter sorties at night; June finds her calling as a
codebreaker at Bletchley Park, covert work that will mean keeping her
contribution to the war effort a secret from Alec forever. Each is
following a dream--but those dreams force them apart for years at a
time.
Their postwar reunion is bittersweet: Alec, shot down and imprisoned in
a series of POW camps, grapples with his injuries and the loss of his
RAF career. June, on the other hand, has found her vocation and
struggles to follow the expected path to domesticity, as much as she
loves Alec. But Alec wants nothing more than to make a life and a family
together.
With the war behind them, their scars--both visible and unseen--make
them strangers to each other. Now each must decide how much to reveal to
the other, which dreams can be sacrificed, and which secrets are too big
to bear alone.
Spanning forty years and shifting from bustling Indian ports to vibrant
gardens in Edinburgh to a horse farm in Kenya, The Stars We Share is a
poignant, heart-wrenching novel about the decisions and concessions that
make a life and a love worth having.
