Today it is my turn on the BlogTour Notes from the Lost by Cathie Hartigan.
Cathie Hartigan lives in the beautiful, historic city of Exeter.
Although her professional training was in music, a decade ago she swapped one keyboard for another in order to take her life-long love of writing more seriously. Since then, she has won several prizes for her short stories and was a finalist in the annual Woman and Home short story competition three times.
Cathie lectured in creative writing for nine years at Exeter College before leaving to found CreativeWritingMatters.co.uk, which offers a range of writing services and administers four international literary competitions a year, including The Exeter Novel Prize and The Trisha Ashley Award.
When not writing, Cathie sings in a small vocal ensemble. The beautiful Devon coastline also provides plenty of distraction but on a rainy day if there's an opera or theatre screening at the cinema, she'll be there.
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About the book
In October 1943, when prisoners of war Alfie and Frank escape from a train taking them to Germany, their lives depend on the family of shepherds who shelter them. In constant jeopardy, the young men wait out the winter in the Italian mountains. In 2000, Ros Goudy inherits her music teacher’s home in Exeter and there she finds letters that reveal the soldiers’ fate. Only one made it back, but it wasn’t to a warm welcome and happy ever after. What had happened that turned heads and hearts against him? The trail she follows begins with an charming comic song composed before the war. What she discovers is that everyone, including herself, has something to hide.
This is a story with two timelines, it goes from past to present and eventually the two stories meld into one. In the present a young musician inherits the house of her old music teacher. Inside the house Ros finds letters that shed light on events during the escape of some Allied soldiers during World War 2.
In a way the two stories often feel as if they are a world apart, despite the reader knowing that somewhere along the line both will connect in some way.
What shines through about the story in the past is the way mere mortals caught in the midst of the brutality and unfairness of war are often capable of the most courageous acts. It's those actions that define us during times of great turmoil. Not the majority who remained silent, but the minority who chose to do the right thing, despite the real danger to themselves.
In the present the story isn't just about secrets it is also about finding your own truth and strength to follow your dreams. Perhaps in a way it is also about doing what is right in certain situations, as opposed to what is right in the eyes of society.
It's historical fiction with a strong emphasis on camaraderie and support in the direst of times. A love for music shines through and a reverence for history. Hartigan draws readers in with bare emotions and keeps them captivated as they wander through two timelines.
Buy Notes from the Lost at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Buy at Amazon com.
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