22 Britannia Road
Amanda Hodgkinson
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  • Published: 28 March 2011
  • ISBN: 9780141964980
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 400

22 Britannia Road

Formats & editions
EBook
28 Mar 2011
Audiobook
28 Apr 2011
Paperback
3 Jan 2012
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A family survived the war - but can they survive the peace?

War changes us all, and sometimes we no longer recognise ourselves...

'Housekeeper or housewife?' the soldier asks Silvana as she and eight-year-old Aurek board the ship that will take them from Poland to England at the end of the war, to Janusz, her husband. But she isn't sure any longer that she is a wife of any kind or whether she has a house. After living wild in the forests for years, carrying a terrible secret, all Silvana knows is that she and Aurek are survivors.

In Ipswich, Janusz is getting ready for the arrival of the wife and son he hasn't seen in six years. After fleeing Poland and the war that left him a deserter, he has found his family a house. He works hard planting a proper English garden to welcome them and to distract him from his own secret.

But the six years apart have changed them all, and they must learn that love can't work unless there are no secrets. To make Aurek a real home, Silvana and Janusz will have to come to terms with what happened to them during the war, accept that each have changed immeasurably and allow their beloved but wild son to be who he truly is.
  • Published: 28 March 2011
  • ISBN: 9780141964980
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 400
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About the author

Amanda Hodgkinson

Amanda Hodgkinson was born in Burnham on Sea in Somerset and grew up in Essex and Suffolk. She currently lives in south west France with her husband and two daughters. This is her first novel.

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Praise for 22 Britannia Road

The characters are so convincing and the writing's so unshowily accomplished that it soon becomes something gripping. An admirable debut

Daily Mail

[A] powerful debut

Sunday Times Culture Magazine

A most accomplished first novel. Powerful story-telling and entirely convincing in its evocation of post-war England. Very good

Penelope Lively

Keep your Kleenex handy reading 22 Britannia Road

Grazia

Convincing and touchingly portrayed

Independent on Sunday

Lose yourself in this beautiful tragic tale

Stylist

A riveting historical novel, set in post-WWII England, about a Polish couple reunited after enduring - and committing - crimes of love and war.

O, the Oprah Magazine

An affecting story, extremely well told

The Times

A stark and beautiful book, alive to the compromises, deceptions and passions that traumatic situations can demand from the most circumspect of people

Marie Claire

A haunting debut that eschews sensationalism and unfurls with quiet delicacy

Easy Living

[An] ambitious debut

Financial Times

Riveting, luminous

The New York Times Book Review