The Death of the Fronsac

A STORY OF SABOTAGE, BETRAYAL AND THE TERRIBLE SADNESS OF EXILE.

An unforgettable recreation of life in wartime, and of the tragic fate of Poland in the 20th century. A novel about sabotage, betrayal and the terrible sadness of exile.

In 1940, during the Phony War, a French destroyer blows up in the Firth of Clyde, just off the coast from Greenock.

The disaster is witnessed by Jackie, a young girl who, for a time, thinks she caused the explosion by running away that day from school; by her mother Helen, a spirited woman married to a dreary young soldier; and by a Polish officer, whose country has just been erased from the map by Hitler and Stalin. Their lives, and the lives of many others, are changed by the death of the Fronsac.

This is a story about divided loyalties, treachery and exile; about people in flight from the destinies that seemed to be theirs before the war disrupted the world they knew.

REVIEW

A wayward story told with admirable vigour and intensity ― The National

A story that conjures up memorable characters and describes vividly the wartime atmosphere... an engrossing book' ― Greenock Telegraph

Ambitious and affecting ― Sunday Herald

[Neal Ascherson's] gripping second world war novel [is a] thoughtful portrait of the wartime experience ― Spectator

[A] humane and compassionate novel... As wise as it is rich. It is an absorbing, complex and humane piece of fiction about terrible times and how good and bad people make the best they can of them' ― The Bottle Imp

It brings history to life for sure but stands as a remarkable first novel. I hope Ascherson has more novels to write ― Tribune

A gripping fictional account ― Country Life

A wholehearted emotional book... It makes you understand fuel tanks and dirty wrecked water - and also unexpected elderly love' ― The Tablet, Books of the Year

this debut novel remains long in the mind... A marvellous meditation on what it is to have lost a country and a past, and to be adrift in search of what might once again constitute a home' ― TLS.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Charles Neal Ascherson is a Scottish journalist and writer.

He was born in Edinburgh and educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, where he read history and graduated with a triple starred first. He was described by the historian Eric Hobsbawm as "perhaps the most brilliant student I ever had. I didn't really teach him much, I just let him get on with it."

PRODUCT DETAILS

Publisher: Head of Zeus
Language: English
Paperback: 393 pages
ISBN-10: 1786694395
ISBN-13: 978-1786694393
Dimensions: 19.8 x 2.5 x 13 cm