A beautiful, well-written book. The author uses an unusual style as the first part of the story is completely told through letters that Simone wrote to Jacques. You feel the anguish that she is feeling as she tries to establish a home with her young son in the US while she waits for a time that they can safely return to France and the home Jacques is building for them. Jacques rarely responds to her letters which is frustrating for Simone as well as the readers but is necessary for the plot. The characters are strong but I wish I had read the first book to get more of the backstory. The post WWII time-frame feels authentic and the situations are believable.. I would recommend this book to my friends who enjoy historical fiction in this era.

Having not read the forerunner to this book, I was intrigued to where this story was heading. In 2 parts that seemed not to link but merged beautifully at the end. The ex-soldier in France desperately rebuilding a house for his partner and their son who were sent to the USA to escape the war. No happy end to that side of the story. The second part links whereby the son inherits the house his father (who he never met) built. Enjoyed this book no end.

I just could not get into this book and ended up abandoning it.
It was the second book in a series and although I had not read the first, it was stated that it could be read as a stand alone book.
The multitude of letters just didn't seem to go anywhere and I think maybe if I had read the first book I would have had more insight into what was going on.

I'm sorry, but I had a very difficult time getting interested in this book. I read approximately 30% and still did not care at all about the characters. In the introduction, the author states that it is the second of a series and can be read as a standalone novel. I don't agree. I've obviously missed a lot by not having read the first book and the author really does not fill in the blanks. Using letters to tell the story was intriguing, but for the first several letters, it was simply the heroine whining that her significant other didn't respond. I started to get a bit interested when she started to write more about her life in post-war New York, but it just wasn't interesting enough to continue. Maybe if I'd had a better intro to the characters......

I felt at a disadvantage not having read 'The Single Soldier' which introduces us to the main characters of Simone and Jacques when I started reading this book.
However, I was soon absorbed into the long distance love affair between Simone (now in New York) who had left France at the end of WWII via the refugee escape route over the Pyrenees. She had left behind her lover Jacques who is also father to her young son and begins a series of letters back to him even though Jacques is "the worst letter writer in the world."
As Simone starts out on a life in America, working, living, sometimes loving she retains a passionate link to Jacques who remains in an isolated village rebuilding the house/home which he moved 6kms down the road to rebuild also his life after the death and destruction of the Nazi invasion.
Then we meet middle aged teacher Enid Makin, who has spent a lonely loveless life teaching English in Manchester and being a carer to both her parents and yet harbours a need for change and passion.
In an extraordinary build up within the merging plots the author often has the ability to evoke the deepest of desires in men and women, brought together often after much trauma and across cultural differences in France and America through decades of political upheaval and change.
There was a slow start but it is so worthwhile growing with the characters and with Simone and Jacques particularly.
The world of rural France was magically described and in contrast America's harsh prejudices alongside freedom to be someone else evoked a wonderful life for a stranger in that land.
Intrigued to go back and Costigan's first novel so I can absorb the beginnings of a story that will stick with a reader for some time.