Eliza Graham

England, 1947: A young woman finds herself under close observation in an insane asylum, charged with a violent crime she has no memory of committing. As she tries to make sense of her recent past, she recalls very little. But she still remembers wartime in Yugoslavia. There she and her lover risked everything to carry out dangerous work resisting the Germans--a heroic campaign in which many brave comrades were lost. After that, the trail disappears into confusion. How did she come to be trapped in a living nightmare? As she struggles to piece together the missing years of her life, she will have to confront the harrowing experiences of her special-operations work and peacetime marriage. Only then can she hope to regain the vital memories that will uncover the truth: is she really a violent criminal...or was she betrayed?

The Lines We Leave Behind

Restless, troubled Rosamond Hunter has spent most of her life running away from the past, filled with guilt about her involuntary role in her mother's death. When her nursing job brings her back to Fairfleet, her childhood home, to care for an elderly refugee, she is forced to confront the ghosts that have haunted her for so long. Her patient, Benny Gault, first came to Fairfleet, England, in 1939, having fled Nazi Germany on a Kindertransport train. As his health fails, he and Rosamond begin to confide in each other. At first their tentative friendship revolves around the love they both shared for Rosamond's glamorous grandmother, Harriet, but as their trust in each other grows, guilty secrets are exposed and history is turned on its head. From the acclaimed author of Playing with the Moon and Restitution comes a beautiful and haunting tale of friendship, redemption and forgiveness across generations.

The One I Was

A secret family history of love, anguish and betrayal. After her beloved grandmother Rozenn's death, Morane is heartbroken to learn that her sister is the sole inheritor of the family home in Cornwall--while she herself has been written out of the will. With both her business and her relationship with her sister on the rocks, Morane becomes consumed by one question: what made Rozenn turn her back on her? When she finds an old letter linking her grandmother to Brittany under German occupation, Morane escapes on the trail of her family's past. In the coastal village where Rozenn lived in 1941, she uncovers a web of shameful secrets that haunted Rozenn to the end of her days. Was it to protect those she loved that a desperate Rozenn made a heartbreaking decision and changed the course of all their lives forever? Morane goes in search of the truth but the truth can be painful. Can she make her peace with the past and repair her relationship with her sister?

You Let Me Go

“This is one seriously powerful World War II story dripping with courage, strength, loss and love... I could hardly breathe in spots!... Such a moving and heart-gripping story.” Reader review, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ In a world at war, a young woman must face her darkest fears… 1941. After the death of her beloved mother, nineteen-year-old Romilly Brooks impulsively accepts a job as a nanny, accompanying eight-year-old Freddie and his grandmother on a sea voyage from war-torn London to the safety of New York. From the first, Romilly is entranced by the opulent ocean liner… if only she could put the idea of German U-boats circling beneath the waves out of her mind. Then she meets Edward Witney. Handsome and attentive, Edward wants to know everything about her, without sharing anything of himself. Why is this mysterious man aboard the Lucknow, and who is the dark-haired woman with an unplaceable accent he keeps whispering with behind closed doors? Just as she’s beginning to unpick his secrets, a thunderous explosion tears through the night. A German torpedo has struck the ship, and Romilly and Freddie are thrown into the deadly Atlantic. Clinging to a flimsy raft, they spot Edward, unconscious nearby. As they’re beginning to lose hope, they glimpse the Lucknow’s lifeboat six – its emergency light a beacon of safety in the freezing night. But when Romilly and Freddie try to board, they’re told that there isn’t enough room for them both. Romilly is suddenly forced to confront a terrible truth: this is a night they might not all survive… Filled with heart-wrenching emotion, this gripping novel will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page. Don't miss this captivating tale of courage, love, and survival, perfect for fans of The Alice Network, Kelly Rimmer and We Were the Lucky Ones. What readers say about The Girl in Lifeboat Six: “Wow! I love books based on history and boy was this book captivating! The characters, their development throughout the book… It draws you in as if you are there living and breathing the experience.” Reader review, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “I was absorbed and couldn't put it down. It has strength, loyalty, love and heartbreak through it. definitely recommend this for fans of historical fiction.” Reader review, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “This is one seriously powerful World War II story dripping with courage, strength, loss and love... I could hardly breathe in spots!... Such a moving and heart-gripping story that I most definitely and sincerely recommend.” Reader review, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “Very addictive and interesting. I loved this one.” Reader review, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “I couldn’t put it down!” Reader review, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “I LOVED this book! I was so emotionally invested in this story and these characters! Highly, highly recommend.” Reader review, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “A beautifully done, heartbreaking story.” Reader review, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “I adored this book.” Reader review, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Heartbreaking World War 2 historical fiction

The Girl in Lifeboat Six

Jubilee

February 1945. Europe is in ruins and the Red Army is searing its way across Germany’s eastern marches, revenging itself upon a petrified population. The war is over, but for some the fight for survival is only just beginning. Alix, the aristocratic daughter of a German resistance fighter, is alone and desperate to flee before the Reds come. But when a ferocious snowstorm descends she must return to the shelter of her abandoned ancestral home. There, she is shocked to find her childhood sweetheart Gregor. As old passions are rekindled, a couple break into the house to hide – the man, dressed in Gestapo uniform, is a stranger, but his companion is altogether more familiar. By morning, the blizzard has died down but the Reds are back. The woman and her Nazi escort are dead, and Gregor has vanished. Alone and terrified, Alix runs for her life, and embarks upon an extraordinary and heartbreaking journey. It will take sixty years and the fall of another empire – Communism – before the riddles of that fateful night can be deciphered. Restitution is a memorable novel about love and betrayal, hatred and heroism – a reminder that, even in the worst of times, the most courageous acts of kindness are possible.

Restitution

Roman

Weil du mich liebst

London 1940. Rachel is alone and adrift in a stricken city as the Blitz reaches its most deadly stage and thousands die in nightly air raids. Her father is under arrest as a suspected spy, her mother seriously ill in hospital. As German bombers pound the city each night, she must survive in the murky blackout alongside London’s criminals and unearth the real traitors. Age 12-plus.

Blitz Kid

1822: La giovane figlia illegittima di Byron muore in un convento in Italia, lontana dalla madre che la adorava. 1838: la giovane Alice Clarke, infelicemente sposata con un uomo violento, è inseguita nelle strade di Londra da un greco e da una donna che indossa un mantello nero.

Allegra

Shattered by a recent bereavement, Minna and husband Tom retreat to an isolated village on the Dorset coast, hoping to find the solitude that will allow them to cope with their loss and rebuild their foundering marriage. Walking on the beach one day, they unearth a human skeleton. It is a discovery which will plunge Minna into a mystery which will consume her for months to come. The remains are soon identified as those of Private Lew Campbell, a black American GI who, it seems, drowned during a wartime exercise in the area half a century before. Growing increasingly preoccupied with the dead soldier’s fate, Minna befriends a melancholy elderly woman, Felix, who lived in the village during the war. As Minna coaxes Felix’s story from her, it becomes clear that the old woman knows more about the dead GI than she initially let on. Playing with the Moon is an unforgettable novel of memory and loss, about the legacy of war, and the need to reconcile ourselves to our past in order to live with the present. Felix’s final shocking confession allows her to come to terms with an event that has cast a shadow over her life, and helps Minna to begin to accept her own loss.

Playing with the Moon

After her soldier husband is seriously injured and her marriage begins to fall apart, Meredith Cordingley returns to teach at Letchford, the grand Cotswold private school run by her father, who outwardly appears to be a typically English headmaster. The setting provides Meredith with a tranquil refuge from her own heartache until one September afternoon, when a shocking discovery is made in the history room. The police are called, but all is not what it seems. Meredith is determined to discover the culprit and becomes convinced that a manipulative member of staff is controlling the sinister goings-on at her beloved Letchford, and exerting a calculating influence on a vulnerable and troubled young student, but on her journey to untangle the truth Meredith risks her father’s reputation, as well as her own. As the mystery unravels Meredith comes to discover that there is more than one person at Letchford School hiding a past filled with complicated secrets. What follows is a gripping mystery, a tale of war, grief, love and second chances.

The History Room

Propaganda offers her a fresh start--but can she stay safe in a world at war? Anna Hall was a beautiful and skilled Second World War air force operative, guiding RAF pilots during the Battle of Britain--before a bomb killed her sister and left her disfigured. In the aftermath, haunted by her failure to keep her sister safe, Anna retreats to a posting in the countryside--until a chance encounter spins her life in a new direction. Recruited into a secret unit broadcasting destabilising propaganda to Nazi Germany, Anna finds new purpose in twisting truth with lies. But as she begins to come to terms with her past and with her new appearance, Anna's present becomes more complicated. When blurred facts and fiction become normal, can anyone be taken at face value? When her undercover work is threatened with discovery, Anna needs all her instincts to untangle the truth in the lies. But what will it take for her to break down the barriers she's built around herself?

Eliza Graham

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