A spellbinding novel of love, hidden World War II secrets and living with the enemy on the island of Guernsey, from the author of The Plot and Love of Country

In 1940, Helene, young, naive, and recently married, waves goodbye to her husband, who has enlisted in the British army. Her home, Guernsey, is soon invaded by the Germans, leaving her exposed to the hardships of occupation. Forty years later, her daughter, Roz, begins a search for the truth about her father, and stumbles into the secret history of her mother's life. Written with emotional acuity and passionate intensity, Island Song speaks of the moral complexities of war-time allegiances, the psychological toll of living with the enemy and the messy reality of human relationships in a tightly knit community. As Roz discovers, truth is hard to pin down, and so are the rights and wrongs of those struggling to survive in the most difficult of circumstances.

"A striking first novel that explores the moral complexities of occupation during the second world war" - Observer

"It's rare to find a first novel that is so assured and so well-balanced ... it is the best sort of intelligent popular fiction... Page-turning" - Scotsman

"Elegant...unflinching" - Daily Mail

"A page-turner...many pages are so good, even charming, that you want to linger on them...it's rare to find a first novel that is so assured and well-balanced" - Yorkshire Post