In 1943, when Grace and Leo Waterhouse married in Australia, they were part of a young generation ready to sacrifice themselves to win the war, while being confident they would survive. Sixty years on, as Grace recounts what happened to her doomed hero, she can say what she suspected then: that men are fundamentally childish and for many of them, bravery is its own end. The tale she tells is one of great love, lost innocence, a charismatic but unstable Irish commander, dashing undercover missions against the Japanese in Singapore, and - in her eyes - reckless, foolhardy exploits. As fresh details continue to emerge, Grace is forced to keep revising her picture of what happened to Leo and his fellow commandoes - until she learns about the final piece in the jigsaw, and an ultimate betrayal. As absorbing as it is moving, this timely novel poses unsettling questions about heroic codes and why men so willingly and fatally adopt them.
- ISBN10 0340825278
- ISBN13 9780340825273
- Publish Date 8 March 2007
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 14 November 2008
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Hodder & Stoughton
- Imprint Sceptre
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 272
- Language English