Crooked Heart
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3.8 • 4 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The acidly heartwarming tale of the relationship between a WW2 orphan evacuee and his foster mother, set against the backdrop of the Blitz
When ten-year-old orphan Noel Bostock is evacuated from London to escape the Blitz, he ends up living in St. Albans with Vera Sedge, who at thirty-six is drowning in debts and dependents. Always desperate for money, she's unscrupulous about how she gets it.
Noel's mourning his godmother, Mattie, a former suffragette. Brought up to share her disdain for authority and eclectic approach to education, he has little in common with other children and even less with Vee, who hurtles impulsively from one self-made crisis to the next. The war's thrown up new opportunities for making money, but what Vee needs (and what she's never had) is a cool head and the ability to make a plan.
On her own, she's a disaster. With Noel, she's a part of a team.
Together they cook up an idea. Criss-crossing the bombed suburbs of London, Vee starts to make a profit and Noel begins to regain his interest in life.
But there are plenty of other people making money out of the war, and some of them are dangerous. Noel may have been moved to safety, but he isn't actually safe at all.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
British author Evans makes her American debut in this Baileys Women's Prize longlisted dark comedy with heart, set in London during World War II. After the death of his beloved godmother Mattie, a former suffragette whose keen intellect had begun to buckle under dementia just as the Blitz commenced, 10-year-old Noel Bostock is evacuated to a suburb of London. He is placed with Vera Sedge, a middle-aged widow who has designs on using Noel, who limps, to elicit sympathy for her small-time con game, exploiting ordinary people's generosity during wartime for her own ends. Vera's grown son, Donald, is running his own racket, helping enlisted men fail their medical exams. Noel's precociousness, combined with the distrust of authority instilled in him by Mattie, makes him a difficult child for many adults to like, and though Vera has enough of her own troubles, somehow the two of them awkwardly but endearingly find a connection. Evans, who has published several children's books, is especially adept at capturing Noel's appealing blend of sophisticated bravado and naive fragility all without lapsing into sentimentality. Most valuable, though, is the tragicomic portrayal of the petty betrayals and profound losses that characterized ordinary people's everyday wartime experiences.
