Jo Baker, Midnight News

Description

It is 1940 and twenty-year-old Charlotte Richmond watches from her attic window as enemy planes fly over London. Still grieving her beloved brother who never returned from France, she is working hard to keep her own little life ticking over: holding down a dull typist job at the Ministry of Information, sharing gin and confidences with her best friend Elena, and dodging her difficult father. She has good reason to keep her head down and stay out of trouble. She knows what happens when she makes a nuisance of herself.

On her way to work she often sees the boy who feeds the birds – a source of unexpected joy amidst the rubble of the Blitz. But every day brings new scenes of devastation, and after yet another heartbreaking loss Charlotte has an uncanny sense of foreboding. Someone is stalking the darkness, targeting her friends. And now he is following her.

‘An intriguing and thrilling read, believable in the tiniest details – I’ve read half a dozen novels set in the Blitz but this one is the most atmospheric and memorable. It had me by the throat’ — Emma Donoghue

‘Deep and dark and wonderful: a marvel of storytelling wrested from the black night of the twentieth century. Your heart will be in your mouth as you read’ — Francis Spufford

‘A riveting and moving novel that masterfully captures the reality of wartime in all its sorrow and uncertainty as well as the light that can still be found in the dark and the beauty of lasting friendship’ — Nina Stibbe

Jo Baker is the acclaimed author of seven previous novels, including the Sunday Times bestselling Longbourn. She lives with her family in Lancaster.