Margaret Leroy

The Soldier's Wife

A young mother is astounded by her four-year-old's increasingly bizarre behavior, which is marked by night terrors, a deathly fear of water, and a fixation with a photo of an Irish seaside town where she claims she used to live.

A Novel

Yes, My Darling Daughter

Young single mum Grace is drowning. Her little girl Sylvie is distant, troubled and prone to violent tantrums which the child psychiatrists blame on Grace. But Grace knows there's something more to what's happening to Sylvie. There has to be. Travelling from the London suburbs to the west coast of Ireland, Grace and Sylvie embark on a journey of shocking discovery, forcing Grace to question everything she believes in and changing both their lives forever. Margaret Leroy writes with candour and intelligence, capturing the menace of suddenly finding that the world may not be at all as you ve thought it Helen Dunmore Margaret Leroy writes like a dream Tony Parsons

The Drowning Girl

English Girl

When disturbing postcards begin to arrive in the mail, Catriona Lydgate finds her happy family life succumbing to her secret dark past, a situation that is complicated when she is accused of deliberately trying to make her youngest daughter ill. 35,000 first printing.

Postcards from Berlin

There's a sudden scatter of birds in the sky. I flinch. Little things seem violent to me. And in that moment my decision is made. 1940, Guernsey. Vivienne de la Mare waits nervously for the bombs to come. Instead comes occupation. Nothing is safe anymore. But was anything truly safe before? The façade of the perfect wife, with her husband fighting on the frontline, cracks under the strain of the lie. Her new life is one where the enemy lives next door. Small acts of kindness from one Nazi soldier feels like a betrayal. A forbidden friendship in a frightening world. But how can you hate your enemy when you know his name, when he makes you feel alive, when everything else is dying around you? Vivienne is fighting her own private war. On one side, the safe, secret, loving world she could build with her captain; on the other, virtuous loneliness and danger. It's time for Vivienne to choose: collaboration or resistance

The Collaborator

Young single mum Grace is drowning. Her little girl Sylvie is distant, troubled and prone to violent tantrums which the child psychiatrists blame on Grace. But Grace knows there s something more to what s happening to Sylvie. There has to be. Travelling from the London suburbs to the west coast of Ireland, Grace and Sylvie embark on a journey of shocking discovery, forcing Grace to question everything she believes in and changing both their lives forever.

Brief Affair

1940, Guernsey. Vivienne de la Mare waits nervously for the bombs to drop. Instead comes quiet surrender and insidious occupation. Nothing is safe anymore. Her husband is fighting on the frontline and the façade of being the perfect wife is cracking. Her new life is one where the enemy lives next door. Small acts of kindness from one Nazi soldier feels like a betrayal. But how can you hate your enemy when you know his name, when he makes you feel alive when everything else is dying around you? Vivienne is fighting her own private war. On one side, the safe, secret, loving world she could build with her captain; on the other, loneliness and danger. It's time for Vivienne to choose –– collaboration or resistance

The Soldier's Wife (The Collaborator)

Every once in a blue moon, a masterful writer dives into gothic waters and emerges with a novel that—like Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, Minette Walters's The Breaker, and Donna Tartt's The Little Friend—simultaneously celebrates and transcends the tradition. Welcome Margaret Leroy to the clan. What's the matter with Sylvie? Such a pretty girl. Four years old; well loved by her young mother, Grace. But there's something . . . "off " about the child. Her deathly fear of water; her night terrors; most of all, her fixation with a photo of an Irish seaside town called Coldharbour. "Sylvie, tell me about your picture. Why's it so special, sweetheart?" My heart is racing, but I try to make my voice quite calm. "That's my seaside, Grace." Very matter-of-fact, as though this should be obvious. "I lived there, Grace. Before." Grace doesn't know what to do with this revelation—she's barely scraping by as it is. A single mother with no family, Grace works full-time at a London flower shop to support herself and Sylvie. Overwhelmed by her inability to help her daughter, she turns to Adam Winters, a dashing psychology professor with some unusual theories about what might be troubling the child. Together, they travel to seemingly idyllic Coldharbour, hoping to understand Sylvie's mysterious connection to the place. Impossible as it may seem, Grace has to accept that her daughter may be remembering a past life. And not only that: the danger bedeviling Sylvie from her past life is still very much a threat to her in this one. Margaret Leroy has been celebrated for writing "like a dream," and her previous novels have been praised for their "hypnotic prose" and "sensuously ethereal, subtly electric drama." Now, in Yes, My Darling Daughter, Leroy offers a novel both haunted and haunting—a wonderfully original, deliciously suspenseful story that enthralls from the first page to the very last.

What really goes on behind closed doors? Catriona has the life she’s always dreamed of: a loving husband, a delightful step-daughter and her own precious little girl, Daisy. When Daisy begins to feel poorly, Catriona seeks help and, in doing so, is forced to look to the past and her own dark and fractured childhood.

The Perfect Mother

Juni 1940, Guernsey. Vivienne de la Mare probeert het dagelijks leven zo normaal mogelijk te houden voor haar twee jonge dochters, hoewel ze weet dat er elk moment bommen kunnen vallen. Haar man vecht aan het front. Zal hij ooit nog thuiskomen? Wanneer de Duitsers het eiland bezetten, moet Vivienne kiezen tussen collaboratie of verzet. Hoe kun je je vijand haten als hij de liefde van je leven wordt? Bij Gunther, een Duitse officier, voelt Vivienne zich op en top vrouw. Hem zal ze nooit kunnen verraden. Een hartverscheurend verhaal vol passie over een vrouw in gewetensnood, dat zich afspeelt tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog op het Kanaaleiland Guernsey. Door de indrukwekkende poëtische schrijfstijl krijg je het gevoel er zelf te zijn geweest.

Een liefde in oorlogstijd

September 1940. England is a war once again and London has become an ever-fragile place for widowed Livia Ripley and her two young daughters, Polly and Eliza. When Livia meets charismatic publisher Hugo Ballantyne, she is hopeful that her life is about to change for the better. But as clouds gather in the clear autumn sky, the wail of the siren heralds the arrival of the Luftwaffe. As the raids intensify, Livia volunteers to be a warden at the invitation of enigmatic Justin Connelly. Here she experiences the true reality and despair of war, a contrast to the world of comfort and cocktails provided in fleeting afternoons at the Balfour Hotel with Hugo. And ultimately, Livia discovers a strength she never knew she had that will give her the power to save those she loves. For when you don't know what tomorrow may bring, there is no choice but to live for today. Reminiscent of classic films like Brief Encounter and The End of the Affair, this is a stunningly captured story of a woman finding herself whilst the world is at war

A Brief Affair

Wenen, 1937. Wanneer de jonge Stella Whittaker de kans krijgt om te gaan studeren aan de muziekacademie in Wenen, gaat er een droom in vervulling. Ze mag tijdelijk bij oude familievrienden, Rainer en Marthe Krause, komen wonen. Verleid door de elegante schoonheid van de stad bezoekt Stella prachtige paleizen, musea en statige koffiehuizen. Na een toevallige ontmoeting in een kunstgalerie wordt ze verliefd op Harri Reznik, een jonge joodse psychiater. Maar de aanstormende oorlogsdreiging werpt haar duistere schaduw over Europa. Stella ontdekt dat de familie Krause nazigezind is en dat de stad waar ze zich thuis voelde lang niet zo gastvrij meer is. Aan de dageraad van deze beangstigende nieuwe wereld blijkt niemand veilig. 'Wat kan Margaret Leroy prachtig vertellen!' Fay Weldon ' Ik werd helemaal meegesleurd door deze sfeervolle roman.' Jenna Blum over Een liefde in oorlogstijd

Het Engelse meisje

Why Women Do and Don't Ask Men Out

Some Girls Do

When seventeen-year-old Stella Whittaker is offered the chance to study at the Academy of Music in Vienna it's a dream-come-true, made possible by old family friends, Rainer and Marthe Kraus, who offer her a place to live. Seduced by the elegant beauty of the city, Stella explores the magnificent palaces, gardens and fashionable coffee houses, and after a chance meeting in an art gallery, falls in love with Harri Reznik, a young Jewish doctor. But as the threat of war casts a dark shadow over Europe, Stella soon discovers that both the household where she lives, and the city she has come to call home, are not as welcoming as they once seemed. And at the dawn of this terrifying new world, no one is safe.

The English Girl

With you I’m in a different world, what happens in our world can’t harm anyone else...

The River House

"When seventeen-year-old Stella Whittaker is offered the chance to study at the Academy of Music in Vienna it's a dream-come-true. Seduced by the elegant beauty of the city, Stella explores the magnificent palaces, gardens and fashionable coffee houses, and after a chance meeting in an art gallery, falls in love with Harri Reznik, a young Jewish doctor. But as the threat of war casts a dark shadow over Europe, Stella soon discovers that both the household where she lives, and the city she has come to call home, are not as welcoming as they once seemed ... "--Publisher description.

Margaret Leroy

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