As the wife of a Resistance member in German-occupied Belgium, Claire Daussois has grown used to hiding strange men in her attic. By the end of 1943, the tiny room has housed dozens of Allied airmen, soldiers and other refugees, whom Claire nurses and harbours from the perpetual threat of discovery by the Gestapo. The B-17 bomber that crash-lands outside Claire's village of Delahaut contains the man who will be both the last and the most significant of the attic's residents: US Air Force pilot Ted Brice. Ted is found severely wounded and semi-conscious by ten-year-old Jean Benoit minutes before the Germans begin their search for survivors. Knowing of Claire's connections with the Resistance, and desperate to atone for his father's shameful collaboration, Jean realises that Claire is the pilot's only hope of survival. The month that follows will stay with them both for the rest of their lives. A few weeks only, a handful of days, it is a period in which the war recedes in the face of more powerful forces - before imposing itself once more with shocking suddenness.
'Anita Shreve writes with such great sensitivity, describing events and landscapes so that one can see them...' Sunday Telegraph
'German-occupied Belgium is the setting within which Shreve's novel of courage, endurance and humanity unfolds. By the end of 1943 Claire Daussois, wife of a Resistance member, has hidden dozens of refugees from the Gestapo. The last and most significant of her attic's residents is US Air Force pilot Ted Brice, found severely wounded and semi-conscious by a ten-year-old boy minutes before the Germans begin their search for survivors of his crashed B-17 bomber. Vividly recreating the events, landscapes, and domestic life of war-torn Europe, Shreve has written a powerful and moving novel.' (Kirkus UK)
Author
About Anita Shreve
Anita Shreve is the author of fifteen best-selling novels which have spent more than 100 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller Lists. The Weight of Water was short listed for the Orange Prize and The Pilot’s Wife was selected by Oprah Winfrey’s ‘Book club’ series. Shreve started her writing career as a journalist and her award-winning short stories and non-fiction have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Cosmopolitan and Esquire. Shreve is married to a man she met when she was 13. She has two children and three stepchildren and lives in Massachusetts.
Anita Shreve was our Author of the Month in February 2012.
