One of the best crossover children/adult books I have read since The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. It has the sort of old worldly feel of I Capture a Castle which suddenly turns into a novel of survival and violence when Britain is invaded. It's a coming-of-age tale, a story of love and endurance but it's real charm is in its style. Big ideas simply told, it is utterly hypnotic.
"Every war has turning points and every person too."
Fifteen-year-old Daisy is sent from Manhattan to England to visit her aunt and cousins she's never met: three boys near her age, and their little sister. Her aunt goes away on business soon after Daisy arrives. The next day bombs go off as London is attacked and occupied by an unnamed enemy.
As power fails, and systems fail, the farm becomes more isolated. Despite the war, it's a kind of Eden, with no adults in charge and no rules, a place where Daisy's uncanny bond with her cousins grows into something rare and extraordinary. But the war is everywhere, and Daisy and her cousins must lead each other into a world that is unknown in the scariest, most elemental way.
