Suzanne's Peace

There are a lot of stories about World War one, which explore the soldier’s world of fighting, sacrifice, courage in adversity, brutality, nobility and hardship. This story takes a different perspective. It takes the year June 1918 to June 1919 from the viewpoint of a teenage girl, not a combatant, but a victim of the displacement of war, a daughter, sister, niece and cousin of combatants, a refugee from her home in the combat zone.

We follow Suzanne and her family as she lives through the last slow months of the war, and the first slow months of the peace, as she waits to return home, not knowing what will remain of the places she holds dear. We travel with her towards what was called at the time “the devastated lands”, to Ypres, and to the family farm in the battle area. The wartime survivors were learning how to live in a post-war world, and there was no model to follow, they had to make it up as they went along.

Verity’s first novel was written to tell a story that she had been looking for a long time. Suzanne and her family are characters you will remember, and find yourself pegging for, as they navigate the tragic landscape of the end of the war to end all wars.