Product Description

Belle must confront the man who brought her so much misery in her childhood and who now threatens her only chance of happiness.

Since she was twelve years old, Belle has lived with a secret — a secret that cuts her off from her family and isolates her wherever she goes. Against the unfolding horror of the Great War, her search for peace takes her from the brittle gaiety of English country house society to the remote Scottish mansions where her grandmother’s tragedy was played out, and to the battlefields of Flanders.

As the scarred and shattered men return from the trenches, and an influenza epidemic scythes across the country, Belle must finally discover a way to break free of her secret — or lose her last chance of happiness.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1902790 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-22
• Released on: 2006-08-22
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 7.75" h x 1.06" w x 5.00" l, .62 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

From AudioFile
A melodramatic novel of post-Edwardian angst among the British upper crust is apparently intended for a young female audience. At 13, tomboy Belle is sexually abused by a 60-something local bigwig. Thus traumatized, she grows up with this terrible secret and at last is forced to confront her demons. Anna Bentinck interprets this fare with verve and commitment. She contributes perhaps a little too much empathy, wringing her hands, as it were, over the fates of the various good guys and portraying the villains with more villainy than the author does. Never over the top, she wastes no subtlety on Belle, her friends, lovers, tormentors, and adventures. Y.R. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About the Author
Michelle Paver was, until recently, a partner in a large London law firm before giving up the law to write full-time. Her other novels include: Without Charity; A Place in the Hills; The Shadow Catcher; and Fever Hill.