"Gaynor's story of courage and strength will make you believe in the
heroic spirit in each of us." **--Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times
bestselling author of *Before We Were Yours
The New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Came Home
sets her unforgettable new novel in China during WWII, inspired by true
events surrounding the Japanese Army's internment of teachers and
children from a British-run missionary school.
Their motto was to be prepared, but nothing could prepare them for
war.
China, December 1941. Having left an unhappy life in England for a
teaching post at a missionary school in northern China, Elspeth Kent is
now anxious to return home to help the war effort. But as she prepares
to leave China, a terrible twist of fate determines a different path for
Elspeth, and those in her charge.
Ten-year-old Nancy Plummer has always felt safe at Chefoo School,
protected by her British status. But when Japan declares war on Britain
and America, Japanese forces take control of the school and the security
and comforts Nancy and her friends are used to are replaced by
privation, uncertainty and fear. Now the enemy, and separated from their
parents, the children look to their teachers - to Miss Kent and her new
Girl Guide patrol especially - to provide a sense of unity and safety.
Faced with the relentless challenges of oppression, the school community
must rely on their courage, faith and friendships as they pray for
liberation - but worse is to come when they are sent to a distant
internment camp where even greater uncertainty and danger await . . .
Inspired by true events, When We Were Young and Brave is an
unforgettable novel about impossible choices and unimaginable hardship,
and the life-changing bonds formed between a young girl and her teacher
in a remote corner of a terrible war.
