This tortured soul, Julia, Polish escapee from a Nazi labour camp, pregnant and friendless carries with her an introduction to her lover’s great friend in Los Angeles, a Hollywood lawyer. So her new life in her adopted country is guaranteed. The big-shot lawyer becomes surrogate father to the child, Natasha, and life is good as we are fast-tracked through the 50s and into J F Kennedy’s inauguration. But the horrors of the war catch up with Julia and the innocent Natasha and the events of the author’s impressive first novel, Hamer’s War, overshadow this engrossing tale. Although the book is complete in itself, its appreciation will be enhanced if you read Hamer’s War too. I loved both and highly recommend them.
Comparison: Douglas Kennedy, Robert Ryan, Andrew Greig.
Similar this month: None.
| Primary Genre | Modern and Contemporary Fiction |
| Other Genres: |
Polish war exile Julia Smollen has escaped the horrors of a Nazi labour camp to forge a new life in California with her daughter, Tasha. Sent to the best school her mother can afford, growing up through the Cold War and the Space Race and coming into contact with the aspiring young Democrat, Jack Kennedy, Tasha is precocious, wilful and politically engaged. As intensely close as Tasha and her mother are, however, she remains unaware of the true identity of her father, the courageous German officer Martin Hamer, who was fatally wounded helping the then-pregnant Julia flee her occupied homeland. But Julia cannot keep the truth hidden from her daughter forever. A sinister figure from the past is about to emerge, with his own dark, vengeful agenda.
A Shadow on the Sun features in the following genres: Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Family Drama, Historical Fiction, General Fiction, Fiction
A Shadow on the Sun is available in Paperback
A Shadow on the Sun was written by Francis Cottam and published by Simon & Schuster Ltd
A Shadow on the Sun has 277 pages
