The Secret Book of Flora Lea

In The Secret Book of Flora Lea, a tribute to the power of storytelling from Patti Callahan Henry (The Favorite Daughter; The Bookshop at Water's End; The Stories We Tell), a whimsical fantasy spun to comfort a frightened child displaced by World War II lies at the heart of a decades-old mystery. Henry's 17th novel captures the magic of childhood as well as the brutality of wartime, then moves the story forward 20 years, where the victims still grapple with trauma.

Hazel, 14, and her five-year-old sister, Flora, are evacuees from London. They move to the safety of rural Oxfordshire during the British government's 1939 "Operation Pied Piper." Hazel comforts her sister with elaborate stories of "Whisperwood and the River of Stars," a secret fantasyland they share. The bucolic countryside invites carefree play--until one day Flora vanishes, presumed drowned in a rain-swollen Thames. Hazel, tormented by grief and guilt that she'd failed Flora, clings to hope that she's alive. Working in a rare book shop in 1960, Hazel is stunned to discover Whisperwood, a book by an American author. She decides this is a clue: "This book will lead me to Flora."

In alternating chapters, set in 1939-40 and 1960, the mystery of Flora's disappearance and the tenacity of Hazel's quest to find her unfold in suspenseful layers. Sympathetic characters--the American author, a London journalist researching lost "Pied Piper" children, and the people of Oxfordshire--reveal critical secrets, including a surprising twist. Henry's lyrical prose imparts an optimism about how, in spite of the past and its residual pain, "We make art from our broken hearts." --Cheryl McKeon, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, N.Y.

Powered by: Xtenit