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1941. Motherless Meryl Jones and her older sister, Hari, are living together in Swansea during World War II while their father is fighting in the war. After their home is destroyed in an air raid, thirteen-year-old Meryl is evacuated to Carmarthen. Hari visits her sister in the countryside, but has a wartime job in the city, and is living a life of air raids, dangerous work, and meeting young soldiers and airmen at night.
Meryl eventually ends up on a farm owned by a kind Welsh woman, and falls for her son Michael—who is half German—but Michael becomes smitten with Hari. Then the military police come for Michael. Meryl poses as his wife to help him escape, and their relationship blossoms. But, as the war ends, Meryl knows that the man she loves will have to make a fateful choice between her and her sister.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
September 1, 2018 -
Formats
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781780102412
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781780102412
- File size: 791 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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July 1, 2009
Welsh sisters face hydra-headed adversity during World War II.
When their home is destroyed in a bombing raid, Meryl Jones is evacuated to Carmarthen, though older sister Hari continues her war work in Swansea. Housed with an abusive family, Meryl runs off. She's found by Michael Euler, a half-German young man living quietly on a farm with his Welsh mother. Clever Meryl helps on the farm, falls for Michael and even learns German. But when Hari comes to visit, Michael is entranced. Tipped off by Meryl's foster family, the military police come for Michael. Pretending to be his pregnant wife, Meryl attempts to flee with him to Ireland, but their boat is sunk by a German submarine that picks up the couple and ferries them to the Fatherland, where Michael's well-connected dad takes them in. They marry for practical reasons, and Michael becomes a pilot. Back home, Hari continues with her work intercepting German messages. Meryl, who is doing similar work, manages to get a message through to her sister. Although Hari now at least knows that Meryl is alive, she's bitterly jealous, unsure if the marriage to Michael is merely one of convenience. Meryl, now really pregnant, is conscripted as a British spy and takes dangerous chances. When the war ends, Michael must choose between the sisters.
Veteran Gower returns to the Welsh historical field she's mined so often before (Spinner's Wharf, 2002, etc.). Though the story holds your interest, the plot, at once incredible and entirely predictable, makes it hard to care deeply about either Meryl or Hari while you await the next crisis.(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)
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