Título: The London House
Autor: Katherine Reay
Sinopse: Uncovering a dark family secret sends one woman through the history of Britain’s World War II spy network and glamorous 1930s Paris to save her family’s reputation.
Caroline Payne thinks it’s just another day of work until she receives a call from Mat Hammond, an old college friend and historian, but Mat has uncovered a scandalous secret kept buried for decades: In World War II, Caroline’s British great-aunt betrayed family and country to marry her German lover.
Determined to find answers and save her family’s reputation, Caroline flies to her family’s ancestral home in London. She and Mat discover diaries and letters that reveal her grandmother and great-aunt were known as the “Waite sisters.” Popular and witty, they came of age during the interwar years, a time of peace and luxury filled with dances, jazz clubs, and romance. The buoyant tone of the correspondence soon yields to sadder revelations as the sisters grow apart, and one leaves home for the glittering fashion scene of Paris, despite rumblings of a coming world war.
Each letter brings more questions. Was Caroline’s great-aunt actually a traitor and Nazi collaborator, or is there a more complex truth buried in the past? Together, Caroline and Mat uncover stories of spies and secrets, love and heartbreak, and the events of one fateful evening in 1941 that changed everything.
In this rich historical novel from award-winning author Katherine Reay, a young woman is tasked with writing the next chapter of her family’s story. But Caroline must choose whether to embrace a love of her own and proceed with caution if her family’s decades-old wounds are to heal without tearing them even further apart.
Praise for The London House:
“Carefully researched, emotionally hewn, and written with a sure hand, The London House is a tantalizing tale of deeply held secrets, heartbreak, redemption, and the enduring way that family can both hurt and heal us. I enjoyed it thoroughly.” —Kristin Harmel, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Lost Names A stand-alone split-time novel Partially epistolary: the historical storyline is told through letters and journals Book length: approximately 102,000 words Includes discussion questions for book clubs
Contexto da obra
Como livro em inglês, esta obra costuma ganhar também uma camada própria de interesse editorial e linguístico. “The London House”, de Katherine Reay, publicado pela editora Harper Muse, em 2021 e com 368 páginas, integra a categoria Livros em Inglês. Por isso, o interesse da obra tende a se ampliar quando o leitor considera também a relação com a língua em que ela circula.
Editora: Harper Muse
Páginas: 368
Ano: 2021-11-02
Edição: Standard Edition
Linguagem: en
ISBN: 0785290206
ISBN13: 9780785290209
Sobre a editora
Os livros da editora Harper Muse costumam transportar o leitor para narrativas profundamente humanas, muitas vezes centradas em jornadas de autodescoberta, relações familiares e desafios pessoais. As histórias frequentemente se desenrolam em cenários marcantes, como pequenas cidades do Sul dos Estados Unidos, resorts históricos ou ambientes imersos em contextos sociais e históricos específicos, como a luta pelos direitos civis ou a Segunda Guerra Mundial. O tom varia entre o emocional e o leve, com momentos de humor e tensão, e o ritmo alterna entre o intimista e o mais dinâmico, conforme a trama exige. O catálogo revela uma predileção por tramas que exploram o passado e suas consequências no presente, além de personagens femininas complexas e situações que mesclam o realismo com toques sutis de magia ou mistério.
