Felicity (Felix) impulsively heads off for Spain in the grip of civil war in pursuit of a young man she barely knows.
She is a nurse and her skills are much in demand, and she quickly becomes immersed in the sheer hard grind of a war effort. When Felix re-encounters Nat, there seems to be a chance of happiness, but Nat’s course of action at a critical and dangerous moment alienates the couple from one another.
The strong narrative of this engaging historical novel keeps the reader hooked, but as well as entertainment there’s a lot to be learned from a novel set in a particular time and place. There are specific markers in it, such as the bombing of Guernica, together with maps and a chronology which help us to set Felix’s fictional experiences against real events that are fairly hard-hitting. There’s death and betrayal, fear and sadness within these covers; we are prompted to think about the nature of compromise and how war requires tough decisions to be made. A World Between Us is a well-written novel predominantly about growing up, with all the challenges and choices it brings, but has crossover appeal that many adults would enjoy.
Comments