Historical Novels Review

Playing with the Moon
Eliza Graham, Macmillan New Writing, 2007

Their small son having been killed in a road accident, Tom and Minna Byrne rent a house in an isolated village on the Dorset coast to come to terms with their loss. Down on the beach, Tom discovers human bones half buried in the sand along with an identity tag which names them as an American GI who drowned in 1944. Up in Yorkshire, Felix, who grew up in the same village sixty years earlier, reads the account of the find in a newspaper. She travels back to the house she hasn't seen since the whole village was requisitioned by the Military for D-Day landing practices during World War II. The two women meet and gradually the story behind those events comes to light.

This is another book where the two central characters relate their own experiences and the story alternates between the present day and 1944. Eliza Graham tells a powerful tale and her characters are well-drawn and believable. I enjoyed this book very much.

Marilyn Sherlock

Playing with the Moon a 'Hidden Gem'

Playing with the Moon is one of the one hundred on the long (very long) list for World Book Day's Hidden Gems initiative.

Readers vote on the titles to create a shortlist of ten books, which will be discussed in readi groups and libraries and generally widely promoted.