Everyone Brave is Forgiven, Chris Cleave
Everyone Brave is Forgiven, Chris Cleave
8 Rating(s)
List: $26.99 | Sale: $18.89
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Everyone Brave is Forgiven

Author: Chris Cleave

Narrator: Luke Thompson

Unabridged: 12 hr 35 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/03/2016


Synopsis

The instant New York Times bestseller from Chris Cleave—the unforgettable novel about three lives entangled during World War II, told “with dazzling prose, sharp English wit, and compassion…a powerful portrait of war’s effects on those who fight and those left behind” (People, Book of the Week).

London, 1939. The day war is declared, Mary North leaves finishing school unfinished, goes straight to the War Office, and signs up. Tom Shaw decides to ignore the war—until he learns his roommate Alistair Heath has unexpectedly enlisted. Then the conflict can no longer be avoided. Young, bright, and brave, Mary is certain she’d be a marvelous spy. When she is—bewilderingly—made a teacher, she finds herself defying prejudice to protect the children her country would rather forget. Tom, meanwhile, finds that he will do anything for Mary.

And when Mary and Alistair meet, it is love, as well as war, that will test them in ways they could not have imagined, entangling three lives in violence and passion, friendship, and deception, inexorably shaping their hopes and dreams. The three are drawn into a tragic love triangle and—as war escalates and bombs begin falling—further into a grim world of survival and desperation.

Set in London during the years of 1939–1942, when citizens had slim hope of survival, much less victory; and on the strategic island of Malta, which was daily devastated by the Axis barrage, Everyone Brave is Forgiven features little-known history and a perfect wartime love story inspired by the real-life love letters between Chris Cleave’s grandparents. This dazzling novel dares us to understand that, against the great theater of world events, it is the intimate losses, the small battles, the daily human triumphs that change us most.

About Chris Cleave

Chris Cleave is the author of Everyone Brave is Forgiven, Gold, Incendiary, and the #1 New York Times bestseller Little Bee. He lives with his wife and three children in London, England. Visit him at ChrisCleave.com or on Twitter @ChrisCleave.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Esil on May 02, 2016

Oh dear! I must be living in another reality because Everyone Brave Is Forgiven did not work as well for me as it seems to have worked for others. Chris Cleave is a very skilled writer -- his prose is truly beautiful. But the story and characters in Everyone Brave Is Forgiven seemed flat and pastich......more

Goodreads review by Katie on March 28, 2017

3.5 stars Everyone brave is indeed forgiven – but the bravery depicted in this novel is often distinguished by an impulse to break down social prejudice, notably racism and class snobbery, rather than heroics on the battlefield. The EU referendum has very much raised the issue of where each of us in......more

Goodreads review by Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ on July 08, 2018

3.5 stars. This WWII novel is set in the earlier days of the war, focusing on its effect on four young Brits: Mary North, a lovely and privileged but rebellious young woman who is earnestly trying to do her part to both help the war effort and combat prejudice, especially against blacks; Mary's best......more

Goodreads review by Violet on April 08, 2021

Everyone Brave is Forgiven is a world war two novel set in London during the Blitz and Malta during the siege. It has a rather odd and awkward subplot dealing with racism - not though towards the Jewish race but towards a lone little African-American boy in London. It's frankly not very believable h......more