Strangers

Sometimes the victims of tragedy are the ones who survive
From the bestselling author of The Kashmir Shawl

Annie and Steve are from different worlds. She is a wife and mother, he is a wealthy executive with a stream of broken relationships in his wake. They do not know each other exists until one morning, on a shopping expedition, they becomes victims of a bomb blast, thrown together in the debris to fight for their lives.

As they lie in the darkness and the rubble, the hours slowly tick by. To ward off fear and death they talk: of everything they have to live for, of their disappointments, loves, failures and their hopes. And so a bond is created that binds them deeper than family, than friends, than lovers. With such strange intimacy, such strange trust, how can they get through the future without each other?

Reviews

‘A page-turner romance … Bristles with intelligence, without forgoing emotional resonance’ Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Rosie Thomas:

‘Love, seduction, magic and illusion collide as Rosie Thomas takes us on a spellbinding journey through an extremely shadowy world’ Daily Express

‘A superbly researched and vivid evocation of wartime Kashmir and Ladakh’ Daily Mail

‘A spellbinding tale. Beautifully written, honest and compassionate…a delight from start to finish’
Daily Express

‘An epic tale…A complicated entanglement of family secrets, love during wartime and dangerous liaisons. For fans of Maggie O’Farrell’
Red

‘A superbly written novel, marvellously descriptive and especially evocative of the war years . . . a gorgeous treat’ Choice

‘Thomas’ portrayal of a young wife struggling to cope with life in wartime Kashmir, her husband’s indifference to her and her attraction to a charismatic mountaineer is beautifully written, touching and believable’ The Daily Express

About the author

Rosie Thomas is the author of a number of celebrated novels, including the bestsellers The Kashmir Shawl, Sun at Midnight, Iris and Ruby and Constance. Once she was established as a writer and her children were grown, she discovered a love of travelling and mountaineering. She has climbed in the Alps and the Himalayas, competed in the Peking to Paris car rally, spent time on a tiny Bulgarian research station in Antarctica and travelled the silk road through Asia. She lives in London.