From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Calamity of Souls comes David Baldacci’s
newest novel set in London in 1944 about a bereaved book shop owner and two teenagers scarred
by the second world war and the healing and hope they find in one another. Fourteen-year-old
Charlie Matters is up to no good but for a very good reason. Without parents peerage or
merit ducking school but barred from actual work he steals what he needs living day-to-day
until he’s old enough to enlist to fight the Germans. After barely surviving the Blitz Charlie
knows there’s no telling when a falling bomb might end his life. Fifteen-year-old Molly
Wakefield has just returned to a nearly unrecognizable London. One of millions of people to
have been evacuated to the countryside via “Operation Pied Piper ” Molly has been away from her
parents—from her home—for nearly five years. Her return however is not the homecoming she’d
hoped for as she’s confronted by a devastating reality: neither of her parents are there only
her old nanny Mrs. Pride. Without guardians and stability Charlie and Molly find an
unexpected ally and protector in Ignatius Oliver and solace at his book shop The Book Keep
where A book a day keeps the bombs away. Mourning the recent loss of his wife Ignatius forms a
kinship with both children and in each other—over the course of the greatest armed conflict
the world had ever seen—they rediscover the spirit of family each has lost. But Charlie’s
escapades in the city have not gone unnoticed and someone’s been following Molly since she
returned to London. And Ignatius is reeling from a secret Imogen long kept from him while she
was alive—something so shocking it resulted in her death and his life being turned upside
down. As bombs continue to bear down on the city Charlie Molly and Ignatius learn that
while the perils of war rage on their coming together and trusting one another may be the only
way for them to survive.
