book cover of The Evening Chorus
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The Evening Chorus

(2015)
A novel by

 
 
"The Evening Chorus serenades people brutally marked by war, yet enduring to live - and relish - the tiny pleasures of another day. With her trademark prose - exquisitely limpid - Humphreys convinces us of the birdlike strength of the powerless." (Emma Donoghue)

Downed during his first mission, James Hunter is taken captive as a German POW. To bide the time, he studies a nest of redstarts at the edge of camp. Some prisoners plot escape; some are shot. And then, one day, James is called to the kommandant's office.

Meanwhile, back home, James' new wife, Rose, is on her own, free in a way she has never known. Then, James' sister, Enid, loses everything during the Blitz and must seek shelter with Rose. In a cottage near Ashdown forest, the two women jealously guard secrets but form a surprising friendship. Each of these characters will find unexpected freedom amid war's privations and discover confinements that come with peace.

The Evening Chorus is a beautiful, astonishing examination of love, loss, escape, and the ways in which the intrusions of the natural world can save us.


Genre: Literary Fiction

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