Louise Walters

Forgive me, Dorothea, for I cannot forgive you. What you do, to this child, to this child's mother, it is wrong... Roberta likes to collect the letters and postcards she finds in second-hand books. When her father gives her some of her grandmother's belongings, she finds a baffling letter from the grandfather she never knew - dated after he supposedly died in the war. Dorothy is unhappily married to Albert, who is away at war. When an aeroplane crashes in the field behind her house she meets Squadron Leader Jan Pietrykowski, and as their bond deepens she dares to hope she might find happiness. But fate has other plans for them both, and soon she is hiding a secret so momentous that its shockwaves will touch her granddaughter many years later...

Mrs Sinclair's Suitcase

Roberta liebt Bücher. Sie liebt es, in alten Ausgaben zu stöbern und dabei unerwartete Entdeckungen zu machen: Briefe, Notizen oder Postkarten, die die Vorbesitzer zwischen den Seiten vergessen haben. Als sie in einem alten Koffer ihrer Großmutter einen wahren Bücherschatz findet, stößt sie in einem der Exemplare auf einen Brief, der all ihre bisherigen Fundstücke in den Schatten stellt. Es ist ein Liebesbrief ihres im Krieg gefallenen Großvaters - doch ist er datiert auf einen Zeitpunkt, als dieser schon längst hätte tot sein müssen ...

Roman

Dem Glück so nah

A Life Between Us

A heartbreaking and deeply compelling debut, Mrs. Sinclair’s Suitcase is a compulsive page-turner about thwarted love, dashed hopes, and family secrets—book-club fiction at its best. Roberta, a lonely thirty-four-year-old bibliophile, works at The Old and New Bookshop in England. When she finds a letter inside her centenarian grandmother’s battered old suitcase that hints at a dark secret, her understanding of her family’s history is completely upturned. Running alongside Roberta’s narrative is that of her grandmother, Dorothy, as a forty-year-old childless woman desperate for motherhood during the early years of World War II. After a chance encounter with a Polish war pilot, Dorothy believes she’s finally found happiness, but must instead make an unthinkable decision whose consequences forever change the framework of her family. The parallel stories of Roberta and Dorothy unravel over the course of eighty years as they both make their own ways through secrets, lies, sacrifices, and love. Utterly absorbing, Mrs. Sinclair’s Suitcase is a spellbinding tale of two worlds, one shattered by secrets and the other by the truth.

Mrs. Sinclair's Suitcase

‘The day was set, in her mind, if not in her heart. She knew what happened. For many years she had re-lived it, frequently, slotting things into place, arranging them to her satisfaction. But had she got it wrong?’ Tina Thornton’s twin sister Meg died in a childhood accident, but for almost forty years Tina has secretly blamed herself for her sister’s death. During a visit to her aging Uncle Edward and his sister Lucia, who both harbour dark secrets of their own, Tina makes a discovery that forces her to finally question her memories of the day her sister died. Who, if anyone, did kill Meg? As Tina finds the courage to face the past, she unravels the tangled family mysteries of her estranged parents, her beautiful French Aunt Simone, the fading, compassionate Uncle Edward, and above all, the cold, bitter Aunt Lucia, whose spectral presence casts a long shadow over them all. Praise for Louise’s previous book, Mrs Sinclair’s Suitcase: ‘A first novel of great charm and assurance, beautifully told and utterly gripping’ – The Times ‘A heart-breaking tale of loss, missed chances and enduring love’ – Good Housekeeping ‘[a] charming debut...’ – Daily Mail A Life Between Us is a beautifully evocative story of a family torn apart at the seams, which will appeal to readers who enjoy family sagas and modern-day mysteries.

Tilgi meg, Dorothea, for jeg kan ikke tilgi deg. Det du gjør mot dette barnet, mot barnets mor, er galt ... Roberta har en forkjærlighet for gamle bøker og gamle brev og postkort. Da faren hennes gir henne noen av eiendelene etter bestemoren, finner hun et brev fra bestefaren hun aldri kjente – datert etter at han angivelig døde under andre verdenskrig. En hjerteskjærende fortelling om tap, tapte muligheter og evig kjærlighet.

Louise Walters

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