Notes

Summary: This book takes a character from the author's The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas on a journey to the past. The aftermath of the war and the effects of a lifetime of guilt are explored through her story. Nearly eighty years after a mother and daughter flee Poland for Paris, with shame and fear at their heels, Gretel Fernsby lives a life that is a far cry from her traumatic childhood. When a couple moves into the flat below her in her London mansion block, it should be nothing more than a momentary inconvenience. However, the appearance of their nine-year-old son Henry brings back memories she would rather forget. Faced with a choice between her own safety and his, Gretel is taken back to a similar crossroads she encountered long ago. Back then, her complicity dishonoured her life, but to interfere now could risk revealing the secrets she has spent a lifetime protecting.