Leeway Cottage

Description

In April 1940, as the Nazis march into Denmark, Sydney Brant, a wealthy girl of the Dundee summer colony, marries a gifted Danish pianist, Laurus Moss. They believe they are well matched, as young lovers do, but Laurus’s beloved family is in Copenhagen, hostage to what the fortunes of Hitler’s war will bring. By the time the war is over, Laurus’s family has played an active role in Denmark’s grassroots rescue of virtually all seven thousand of the country’s Jews. Meanwhile, in America, Sydney has led a group knitting for the war effort, and had a baby.

Combining the story of one long American twentieth-century marriage with one of the most stirring stories of World War II, Leeway Cottage is a beautifully written tour de force of a novel.

“[E]nthralling . . . triumphant and true.” “Absorbing…Daring…Gutcheon has strong narrative skills.” “Pure storytelling…[Gutcheon’s] characters and settings are alive, sparkling with deft touches of period detail…riveting…vibrant.” “A remarkably rich and emotionally jarring novel filled ultimately with hope.” “A great drama, cinematically told…[Gutcheon] writes elegantly about the complex bonds of family.” “A gentle, even tender book. Every reader will be wiser for it.” “A good old–fashioned, all–encompassing read, with tears and smiles guaranteed.” “Compelling…Ambitious…Gutcheon’s insights are…keen, her sympathy for all her characters…contagious.” “Charting a marriage against the backdrop of a tumultuous century, Gutcheon writes evocatively of love and war.” “Gutcheon’s tale is more than just a story of a marriage; it’s a metaphor for an era.” “Stirring…The World War II saga anchors the novel, giving it resonance beyond the family dramas Gutcheon tells so well.” “A rich saga of an American family told with moving clarity.” “A compelling and deeply felt reading experience.”

Additional information