Two Lives

About this book

From the author of Saint X and Elsewhere, a stunning novel about the fate of two children sent from Europe to the English countryside to escape the onset of World War II and the aftermath of the decisions they made thereEvelyn Lieberman has always been good at carrying her grief while carrying on. A widow in a Florida retirement community, she keeps busy with regular visits to her grandchildren and a full social calendar with her friends, the Girls. She speaks little about her past and is proud of the life she has built in the present. When Evelyn's friend recommends a book by a prominent British author, Simon Glaser, Evelyn is startled to find that the novel tells a hauntingly familiar story. She decides to seek out the book's writer, the only other person who could have known the details of what happened all those decades ago. Spanning prewar Vienna, the Yorkshire moors, postwar New York, a Florida retirement community, and the London literary world, Two Lives is a sweeping and masterful exploration of heritage, memory, and the human yearning to reconcile our pasts with our present and take the measure of our lives.