The Lost English Girl-Julia Kelly

Julia Kelly's The Lost English Girl is an emotional and sweeping historical novel set against the tumultuous backdrop of World War II, exploring themes of love, motherhood, and betrayal. The story begins in Liverpool in 1935 with Viv Byrne, a young woman from a strict Catholic family, who finds herself pregnant after a brief romance with Joshua Levinson, a Jewish jazz musician with dreams of a career in New York. A hurried wedding seems the only solution, a chance for Viv to escape her domineering mother, but Joshua makes a life-altering decision on their wedding day that forces Viv back into the harsh embrace of her disapproving family.

Five years later, on the eve of World War II, Viv faces an agonizing choice: to evacuate her young daughter, Maggie, to the perceived safety of the countryside. Like many children in England during Operation Pied Piper, Maggie is sent to live with strangers – an affluent couple who are unable to have children of their own. Meanwhile, in New York City, Joshua, whose musical ambitions have faltered, decides to return to England to serve in the Royal Air Force, battling his lingering regrets about the wife and daughter he left behind.

As the war intensifies and bombs rain down on England, tragedy strikes when Viv learns that Maggie's countryside haven is not immune to the horrors. Her daughter is seemingly lost in the chaos. Years later, with Joshua's help, Viv embarks on a desperate search for the truth about their shared past and what it will take to piece their shattered family back together. The Lost English Girl is a poignant exploration of the immense fortitude of families separated by war, the stigma of societal expectations, and the lengths a mother will go to find her child, all while examining what it takes to forgive and find a way back to those you thought were lost forever.

*Books may have stickers, markings, or minor writing as they are used.*