Honeymoon in Hell

Honeymoon in Hell is a remarkable rediscovered World War Two novel about a
young couple grappling with the challenges of escaping from Nazi-occupied
France

September 1939. Star-crossed newly-weds, Anthea and Igor, have enjoyed a
lazy summer on the French Riviera with their fun-loving friends, but a
disturbing undercurrent lies beneath their insouciance. She is just sweet
seventeen, and he a worldly thirty. They return to Paris, a city once
synonymous with love and art, now overshadowed by the spectre of war.

June 1940. The couple flee from the Nazi occupiers and join the exodus
heading south. Their baby son is born during the bombardment of Bordeaux,
and she survives childbed fever. They return to Paris. Igor expects to be
mobilized into the French Army. Anthea is put under house arrest by the
Gestapo under threat of internment. They plan an escape with a smuggler
across the demarcation line to the Free Zone, narrowly evading a Nazi trap
at the border by hiding in a hotel swarming with Gestapo agents. Guided by
gamekeepers and accompanied by two Gaullists, they safely cross the line
with their baby hidden in a pillowcase. In Marseille, they take refuge in a
brothel.

By January 1941 they are in Cannes where seduction and corruption thrive
under the sun. Is the unoccupied southern zone under the Vichy government
any safer? Will their marriage survive for better or for worse?