At the end of WWII Gus brings back an emotionally damaged German wife, Krista, to his family home on Clapham Common, London. In a bombed terrace his house remains unscathed yet possibly unstable. His two sisters are at home, one a grieving wartime widow who has also lost her baby. The other is suffering from the effect from war but we do not discover how deeply until towards the end. Gus works for an Intelligence Unit interrogating war criminals and Krista assists him until she has a baby. Gus had an English fiancée and his marriage sends emotional ripples through both his family and his ex fiancée’s. Krista has a difficult time adapting to English life and facing the obvious hostility towards Germans. Emotions run high throughout the book, personalities clash, lives change in this impressive tale. The Prologue alerts us to a dead body of a woman with child in the garden next door. We the reader, are left guessing who that woman might be until a fast-paced conclusion. Highly recommended. ~ Sarah Broadhurst
As the Second World War draws to a close, Intelligence Officer Gus Clifton surprises his sisters at their London home. But an even greater shock is the woman he brings with him, Krista - the German wife whom he has married secretly in Berlin. Krista is clearly devastated by her experiences at the hands of the British and their allies - all but broken by horrors she cannot share. But Gus's sisters can only see the enemy their brother has brought under their roof. And their friend Nella, Gus's beautiful, loyal fiancee, cannot understand what made Gus change his mind about their marriage. What hold does Krista have over their honourable and upright Gus? And how can the three women get her out of their home, their future, their England? Haunted by passion, betrayal and misunderstanding these damaged souls are propelled towards a spectacular resolution. Krista has lost her country, her people, her identity, and the ties that bind her to Gus hold more tightly than the sisters can ever understand...
Elizabeth Buchan began her career as a blurb writer at Penguin Books after graduating from the University of Kent with a double degree in English and History. She moved on to become a fiction editor at Random House before leaving to write full-time. Her novels include the award-winning Consider the Lily and the international bestseller, Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman, which was made into a CBS Primetime Drama. Other novels include I Can’t Begin to Tell You, a story of SOE agents and resistance in wartime Denmark, and The New Mrs Clifton which is set in London and Berlin in 1945. The Museum of Broken Promises is her latest.
Elizabeth Buchan’s short stories are broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and published in magazines. She has reviewed for The Times, the Sunday Times and the Daily Mail, and has chaired the Betty Trask and Desmond Elliot literary prizes. She has been a judge for the Whitbread First Novel Award and for the 2014 Costa Novel Award. She is a patron of the Guildford Book Festival and co-founder of the Clapham Book Festival.
