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The Hour of Separation

A heartbreaking love story set in the Resistance from the Richard & Judy selected bestselling author

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The Hour of Separation

By: Katharine McMahon
Narrated by: Catherine Harvey
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'An epic yet heartbreakingly intimate novel of conflict and betrayal, and of the pain of lost love' Kate Mosse

A long-buried secret, a heart-breaking betrayal...

Estelle never really knew her mother, Fleur, but is haunted by her legacy. A legendary resistance heroine in the Great War, she had helped Allied soldiers escape from Belgium - and was not alone in paying a terrible price.

Christa's father was one of those Fleur saved - but he returned home a ruined man. So, when Estelle arrives on Christa's doorstep hungry for information about her mother, an intense and complex friendship is ignited.

In 1939, as conflict grips Europe once more, Estelle follows her mother's destiny. Then Christa discovers that Fleur was betrayed by someone close to her and the truth may destroy them all...


'A beautiful, romantic and touching book. The prose is elegant and evocative and, McMahon's research is scholarly and meticulous' Jonathan Lynn, film director

'Katharine McMahon is a historical novelist who can turn her hand to any period and bring it thrillingly alive. [The Hour of Separation is] very possibly her best and most powerful book so far' Readers Digest

'Tender and painterly...rather beautiful' Irish Times
Read by Catherine Harvey
(p) 2018 Orion Publishing Group©2018 Katharine McMahon 20th Century Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Romance War & Military Women's Fiction War England
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Critic reviews

Intense and emotional, The Hour of Separation takes us deep into the shadows cast by violence and conflict. Terrific (Elizabeth Buchan)
An epic yet heartbreakingly intimate novel of conflict and betrayal, and of the pain of lost love
It's a beautifully unfolded story about two women in World War Two who are united by a secret that dates back to the previous war. It kept me guessing to the end (Wendy Moore)
All stars
Most relevant
There is a lightness of touch from the author that, with the audio book means you feel you are living the story with the characters - that they are alive. I found it hard to put down.

The characters, men and women, are beautifully drawn: as a reader you are drawn into the emotions and the tensions each character experiences.

The research behind the book must have been extensive - set in the 30s/40s, the Belgian, England, France and Spain settings seem so seamlessly authentic.

Some text to be skipped over may be the Gestapo interrogations.

Sensitive, prescient, hard to put down: beautifully written

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Incredibly slow starting, long, drawn-out, none of the characters had personalities. was really annoying that tge Road name was wrong, the one in the book is in a totally different part of Watford. I was the only person in my book group to finish it!

Long and drawn-out

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