Winner of the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction
One of Lit Hub's and Zibby Owens's Most Anticipated Books of 2025
April 1941. Belfast has escaped the worst of the Second World War - so far. Over the next two months, it will be so destroyed from above that people will say, "My God, Belfast is finished." Many won't make it through, and those who do will be forever changed. Living amid the rubble are sisters Emma and Audrey. One is engaged to be married; the other is in a secret relationship with a woman. As the bombs fall, and tomorrow feels further and further away, these young women must grapple with the cultural expectations standing firm around them, and try to seize control of their destinies. After all, Emma thinks, if one is to survive, one must survive for something.