Small truths, white lies; the many shades of friendship...

The highly anticipated novel from the author of 'Dreams of Water' and 'Somewhere, Home'.

Margo has lived in the old apartment block in Beirut for as long as her neighbour can remember. A constant in the life of the neighbourhood, she is privy to secrets, stories, whispers that seem to echo in the stone of the walls. But before this life in Beirut, she was a very different person. Married to a pilot who would be killed whilst flying over Germany, Margo played her own part in the war, first as a resistance fighter in occupied France and then as a translator after the liberation of the concentration camps in Poland and Germany. She had seen horror in her life. Layla lives next door to Margo and is in awe of her courage. It was a different time but yet she has her own experiences of war: Lebanon's civil war. And so their friendship is strong and, despite their age, they form a deep bond. But when Margo dies suddenly, Layla realises that all was not as it seemed. Could Margo's life really have been a tissue of lies? And why would she keep the truth from her closest friends? As Layla travels to Prague to uncover a past long kept hidden, she realises that there was more to her friend's life than she ever imagined.