The Lost English Girl

By: Julia Kelly

Narrated by: Danielle Cohen, Raphael Corkhill

Combining “fast-paced historical fiction with a hint of suspense” (Booklist), this epic saga from Julia Kelly explores love, motherhood, and betrayal set against World War II.

Liverpool, 1935: Raised in a strict Catholic family, Viv Byrne knows what’s expected of her: marry a Catholic man from her working-class neighborhood and have his children. However, when she finds herself pregnant after a fling with Joshua Levinson, a Jewish man with dreams of becoming a famous jazz musician, Viv knows that a swift wedding is the only answer. Her only solace is that marrying Joshua will mean escaping her strict mother’s scrutiny. But when Joshua makes a life-changing choice on their wedding day, Viv is forced once again into the arms of her disapproving family.

Five years later and on the eve of World War II, Viv is faced with the impossible choice to evacuate her young daughter, Maggie, to the countryside. In New York City, Joshua gives up his failing musical career to serve in the Royal Air Force and try to piece together his feelings about the family he left behind. However, tragedy strikes when Viv learns that the countryside safe haven she sent her daughter to wasn’t immune from the horrors of war. It is only years later, with Joshua’s help, that Viv learns the secrets of their shared past and what it will take to put a family back together again.

Telling the harrowing story of England’s many evacuated children, Kelly’s The Lost English Girl “will hook readers from the first page” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

©2023 Julia Kelly. All rights reserved. (P)2023 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Amazing! I finished it last week and can’t stop thinking about it g about it!

Can’t think of a thing! Really!my favorite book so far this year! I loved the other Julia Kelly book that I had the opportunity to read as well…. Called The Last Garden in England. I will purchase the hard copy for my library :)

Informative and intriguing.

Loved the story! It gave me insight challenges on the home front during the war. Those evacuees had to be especially courageous but I ached for the parents too.

So many perspectives

Deep characters woven together in a wonderful story - real people with a realistic life- generational- forgiveness and redemption

Original story line. Couldn’t put it down.

Loved the intrigue
Could not wait to find out what would happen next and if Maggie was alive. .

surely one of my 2024 favorites

I can't say enough about this historical fiction account of one little girl sent out of London during WWII. I've often wondered about those children, most of whom were gone from home for 5 years or more. Were they loved by their foster families, or were they cheap forced labor? And what if the foster family didn't want to give a child back? What if a child lived in luxury in the country and didn't want to return to London? After all, a young child might not even remember her real parents at all. JK addresses some of these questions in this excellent novel. And the 2 narrators are absolutely outstanding.

Great historical fiction

Wonderful telling of the tragedies and sacrifices made during WWII...I lived Viv and her heroism.

Historical Interesting

Great story. I found it hard to stop listening to it. Each person’s perspective was interesting.

History of the time. How hard to live through wartime

I most enjoyed the Historical background and Viv’s character development. The end felt a little too convenient though.

wow

I bought this book for the cover and no regrets. Such a beautiful, poignant story. And this is coming from a girl who does not love children.

Love this story but the readers are awful!

The story is lovely but the narrators have an Irish brogue. The characters live in Liverpool. Not Ireland. This made no sense.