This book is a wonderful example of storytelling, and despite it's often dark content, is a playful piece of narrative. The reader has to navigate between two timelines, the first being that of Charles Northcote and his lover Anselm. The year is 1939; Charles is an officer in the RAF, Anselm, a German Art student and their love is forbidden by the laws and social values of the time. As we are thrown into the midst of their relationship in a Piccadilly hotel room, I thought it seemed more like a casual fling, but once they have been separated and Anselm deported to a brutal Nazi re-education camp, Charles dedicates every thought and action to finding and rescuing Anselm.
The second begins in April 2012, when a British diplomat, Edward Northcote, is unexpectedly released after having been held hostage in an Afghan cave for the previous eleven years. He returns to London to find his young daughter is now an adult woman, and his beloved Danish wife has died after falling from a cliff, unsure if it was accidental or not. Straight away, I was intrigued to discover the connection between this dual narrative of the Northcote family.
