If one must be exiled, then at least the capital ought to value its children more highly than macaws and musk oxen. And when she discovered that London had evacuated its zoo animals days before its children, she was furious. MARY ALMOST WEPT WHEN she learned that her first duty as a schoolmistress would be to evacuate her class to the countryside. ExcerptĮveryone Brave is Forgiven September, 1939

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. 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. The three are drawn into a tragic love triangle and-as war escalates and bombs begin falling-further into a grim world of survival and desperation. Tom, meanwhile, finds that he will do anything for Mary.Īnd 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. When she is-bewilderingly-made a teacher, she finds herself defying prejudice to protect the children her country would rather forget.

Young, bright, and brave, Mary is certain she’d be a marvelous spy. Then the conflict can no longer be avoided. Tom Shaw decides to ignore the war-until he learns his roommate Alistair Heath has unexpectedly enlisted. The day war is declared, Mary North leaves finishing school unfinished, goes straight to the War Office, and signs up. 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).

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