A historical novel set in World War II England that starts during the Blitz in 1940. A group of English people are fleeing Nazi bombs by escaping into small villages in the English countryside. A little girl, not quite six years old, is found sleeping on the back bench of a bus without anybody on the bus who claims her. A young married woman takes her home, and after it is discovered that her mother was killed in the bombing of the hotel the mother and the child had been staying in, the young married woman and her husband take the child in and start caring for her. They end up raising the child for the next several years ... until, unexpectedly, the girl's father, who had been thought to be completely out of the picture, shows up and claims her. That's where I am now, 248 pages in, with a little more than 200 pages left. The little girl and the young married woman have pretty thoroughly bonded at this point, but the just-surfaced father seems to expect to be able to send the little girl away to live with his sister and her family. It's an emotionally devastating situation that is sure to break somebody's heart -- including the reader's. I'm looking forward to being able to sit down with it and read some more.
Added: I posted this a few days ago, but too late to get any response, which I guess is why I didn't get any response. I'm almost through with it now, and it is a really good read, although it is not the kind of fiction I usually read.
-- Ron
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