The first novel in The Balkan Trilogy is a powerful depiction of love and friendship during wartime

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY RACHEL CUSK

'A fantastically tart and readable account of life in eastern Europe at the start of the war' Sarah Waters

'Wonderfully entertaining' Observer

Autumn, 1939. Newly-weds Guy and Harriet Pringle step aboard the train to Bucharest. Guy's lecturing job awaits, alongside friends and the ever-ardent Sophie - but for Harriet, alone and naive, it's a strange new life. As Guy's world collides with that of his new bride, Harriet realises how little she knows the man she has married. Manning's masterpiece, alive with exhilarating characters, is a haunting evocation of young love and the uncertainty of war.

"Magnificent...full of wit, sharp insight and vivid description." - The Times

"Wonderfully entertaining" - Observer

"So glittering is the overall parade … and so entertaining the surface that the trilogy remains excitingly vivid; it amuses, it diverts and it informs, and to do these things so elegantly is no small achievement" - Sunday Times