Editorial Content for Everyone Brave is Forgiven
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
The first paragraph of Chris Cleave’s latest novel, EVERYONE BRAVE IS FORGIVEN, jumps right into the story. Mary North, a bored 18-year-old socialite, leaves Swiss finishing school only moments after it is announced that England has entered World War II. She volunteers for the war effort, assuming that her social skills will be of use somehow. She is assigned the post of teaching a small group of young children who are the leftovers --- the infirm, the mentally slow, and the non-Caucasians who either were not originally evacuated or who were evacuated but then were rejected by families in the countryside who were caring for the young London evacuees.
In her teaching position, Mary meets Tom Shaw, a young school administrator, who becomes a romantic interest. Tom's flatmate and closest friend, Alistair Heath, an art restorer at the Tate, has already enlisted. Though Tom doesn’t really want to join up, he feels he should do his part for crown and country. But the War Office turns him down, citing the importance of his civilian work.
"War is hell. This book does nothing to sugarcoat that fact.... EVERYONE BRAVE IS FORGIVEN is a well-researched novel that gives readers plenty to think about."
When Alistair receives a brief leave before being posted to Malta, he returns to London to see Tom. By now, Tom and Mary are a serious, though uncommitted, couple. Hilda, Mary's best friend, is invited along to round out the foursome. But fate has other plans, and a quiet spark ignites between Mary and Alistair, which is later nurtured via letters.
Mary develops a rapport with Zachary, a young black child, who can neither read nor write, but is very street savvy. During a Christmas play at the school, the air raid sirens send everyone (students, parents and school staff) running to the school's basement for safety. The sound of explosions from the bombing are frightening, and Zachary runs outside. Tom chases after him. Soon Mary goes in search of Tom and Zachary. More bombs fall. The school building is decimated, and there are no survivors. Mary finds Zachary frightened but safe. Tom does not survive.
By now, Alistair is in the thick of things on Malta. He has lost an arm. Allied casualties are high. Food and ammunition are scarce. Troop morale is understandably low. Back on the home front, Mary and Hilda volunteer as ambulance drivers. Their ambulance runs are chaotic and risky, and many times they transport the dead. Both sustain injuries --- Mary to her leg, Hilda to her formerly pretty face.
War is hell. This book does nothing to sugarcoat that fact. People learn to survive as best they can in such volatile times. War brings out the very best, as well as the very worst, in human nature. Loosely based on the wartime experiences of the author’s grandparents, EVERYONE BRAVE IS FORGIVEN is a well-researched novel that gives readers plenty to think about.
Teaser
It’s 1939, and Mary, a young socialite, is determined to shock her blueblood political family by volunteering for the war effort. She is assigned as a teacher to children who were evacuated from London and have been rejected by the countryside because they are infirm, mentally disabled, or --- like Mary’s favorite student, Zachary --- have colored skin. Tom, an education administrator, is distraught when his best friend, Alastair, enlists. Alastair, an art restorer, has always seemed far removed from the violent life to which he has now condemned himself.
Promo
It’s 1939, and Mary, a young socialite, is determined to shock her blueblood political family by volunteering for the war effort. She is assigned as a teacher to children who were evacuated from London and have been rejected by the countryside because they are infirm, mentally disabled, or --- like Mary’s favorite student, Zachary --- have colored skin. Tom, an education administrator, is distraught when his best friend, Alastair, enlists. Alastair, an art restorer, has always seemed far removed from the violent life to which he has now condemned himself.
About the Book
The instant New York Times bestseller from Chris Cleave --- the unforgettable novel about three lives entangled during World War II, told “with dazzling prose, sharp English wit, and compassion…a powerful portrait of war’s effects on those who fight and those left behind” (People, Book of the Week).
London, 1939. The day war is declared, Mary North leaves finishing school unfinished, goes straight to the War Office, and signs up. Tom Shaw decides to ignore the war --- until he learns his roommate Alistair Heath has unexpectedly enlisted. Then the conflict can no longer be avoided. Young, bright and brave, Mary is certain she’d be a marvelous spy. When she is --- bewilderingly --- made a teacher, she finds herself defying prejudice to protect the children her country would rather forget. Tom, meanwhile, finds that he will do anything for Mary.
And when Mary and Alistair meet, it is love, as well as war, that will test them in ways they could not have imagined, entangling three lives in violence and passion, friendship and deception, inexorably shaping their hopes and dreams.
Set in London during the years of 1939–1942, when citizens had slim hope of survival, much less victory; and on the strategic island of Malta, which was daily devastated by the Axis barrage, EVERYONE BRAVE IS FORGIVEN features little-known history and a perfect wartime love story inspired by the real-life love letters between Chris Cleave’s grandparents. This dazzling novel dares us to understand that, against the great theater of world events, it is the intimate losses, the small battles, the daily human triumphs that change us most.
Audiobook available, read by Luke Thompson
