The Alice Network
by Kate Quinn | 
White Rose, Black Forest
by Eoin Dempsey | 
Broken Angels
by Gemma Liviero | 
The Sisters of St Croix
by Diney Costeloe | 
The Silver Music Box
by Mina Baites | 
Secrets of a Charmed Life
by Susan Meissner | 
Pastel Orphans
by Gemma Liviero | 
Along the Broken Bay
by Flora J. Solomon | 
The Honest Spy
by Andreas Kollender | 
We Were the Lucky Ones
by Georgia Hunter | 
The Orphan's Tale
by Pam Jenoff | 
The Ragged Edge of Night
by Olivia Hawker | 
The Beekeeper's Promise
by Fiona Valpy | 
The Sugar Men
by Ray Kingfisher | 
Hearts of Resistance
by Soraya M. Lane | 
My Mother's Secret
by J. L. Witterick | 
The Chilbury Ladies' Choir
by Jennifer Ryan | 
Everyone Brave is Forgiven
by Chris Cleave | 
White Chrysanthemum
by Mary Lynn Bracht | 
Gone for Soldiers
by Jeff Shaara |
This brilliant novel chronicles the fall of Singapore to the Japanese in World War II. Central to the story is one Chinese family: Claude, raised to be more British than the British and ashamed of his own heritage; his father, Humphrey, whose Anglophilia blinds him to possible defeat and his wife's dalliances; and the redoubtable Grandma Siok, whose sage advice falls on deaf ears. Expatriates, spies, fifth columnists, and nationalists--including the elusive young woman Ling-Li--mingle in this exotic culture as the Japanese threat looms. Beset by the horror of war and betrayal and, finally, torture, Claude must embrace his true heritage. In the extraordinary final paragraphs of the novel, the language itself breaks into Chinese. With penetrating observation, Vyvyane Loh unfolds the coming-of-age story of a young man and a nation, a story that deals with myth, race, and class, with the ways language shapes perceptions, and with the intrigue and suffering of war. Reading group guide included.