Select language, opens an overlay

Comment

May 31, 2011
In Amanda Hodgkinson's debut novel, survivors of World War II try to reconstruct a life as a family in a new country. A husband, wife and son are reuniting after being apart for six years. On the surface, the three have all the ingredients for a happy ending: The wife and child are safe, and the husband has a job and a house for them. But nothing is ever so simple. Neither husband nor wife is the same person that each knew before the war; each has secrets about what happened during those long years apart. The house at 22 Britannia Road offers hope, and yet it can't protect its residents from the secrets they keep. Hodgkinson has a talent for introducing complicated characters who tear at your heart and keep you worrying and wondering about them. She also knows how to let secrets simmer and boil over in surprising ways