Everyone Brave Is Forgiven

Starred review from January 25, 2016
When war is declared in London in 1939, Mary rushes to the War Office to sign up. She is assigned to be a teacher (not the glamorous war job she’d pictured), but the children soon win her over, especially a child in her class named Zachary. When her class is evacuated to the country, Mary persuades Tom, her lover and a school administrator, to allow her to teach a small group of rejected children who are forced to remain. Meanwhile, Tom’s roommate, Alistair, volunteers for the army and must endure a horrifying retreat in France before assignment to the island of Malta, where he and his fellow soldiers receive little food and are constantly under fire. On leave between assignments, Alistair meets Mary and the two are instantly attracted to each other despite their loyalties to Tom. Slowly at first, they begin corresponding as the war plunges forward and the personal losses pile up. Real, engaging characters, based loosely on Cleave’s (Little Bee) own grandparents, come alive on the page. Insightful, stark, and heartbreaking, Cleave’s latest novel portrays the irrepressible hopefulness that can arise in the face of catastrophe. Agent: Jennifer Joel, ICM Partners.

March 1, 2016
Privileged young Londoners lose their sense of entitlement and their moral innocence in Cleave's (Gold, 2012, etc.) romantic but very adult World War II love story. In 1939, Mary North and her friend Hilda are cosseted upper-class girls used to servants and tea at the Ritz. But as soon as England declares war, 18-year-old Mary quits finishing school and signs up to serve through the War Office. Sent to an elementary school, she is disappointed when practically her first task is to help evacuate her students from London. Looking for another teaching position, she meets 23-year-old Tom Shaw, who runs the school district. Melancholy iconoclast Tom does not enlist, believing "someone must stay behind who understands how to put it all back together," but his more debonair roommate, Alistair, a conservator at the Tate, does join up. At first Alistair's brutal experiences on the battlefront offer a stark contrast to the ease of the Londoners' lives. Mary relishes teaching misfit children who remain in London, forming a particular bond with 10-year-old Zachary, a black American--the era's racial prejudice becomes an undercurrent throughout the novel. Mary and Tom fall into heady love. Hilda remains a boy-crazy snob. When Alistair comes home on leave, the four spend an evening together. Hilda is attracted to Alistair, who is drawn to Mary, who is attracted back but does her best to remain loyal to Tom, who secretly tries to enlist but is turned down. Alistair ends up on Malta facing dire conditions under the Axis blockade. Meanwhile, the Blitz hits London. Suddenly no one is safe, and all face harsh realities. While Mary, Tom, and Alistair are all deeply complicated beneath their bantering wit, it is secondary character Hilda who grabs the reader's heart as she evolves from Noel Coward joke into full-fledged human being. Among all the recent fictions about the war, Cleave's miniseries of a novel is a surprising standout, with irresistibly engaging characters who sharply illuminate issues of class, race, and wartime morality.

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March 1, 2016
Loosely based on his grandparents' WWII-era lives, Cleave's (Gold, 2012; Little Bee, 2009) intensely felt new novel follows the soul-plumbing journeys of four young Londoners fighting their own personal battles as their world breaks apart. They include aristocratic Mary North, who derives unexpected purpose from teaching city children after their more socially acceptable peers are evacuated to the countryside; her friend Hilda; Tom, Mary's middle-class supervisor and lover, and his roommate, Alistair, a Royal Artillery officer. Mary and Alistair's mutual attraction complicates matters yet serves as a lifeline for them both. Just as transformative for Mary are her mentorship of an African American student, which almost everyone disapproves of, and her up-and-down relationship with Hilda, one shaped by their joint experiences and occasional jealousy. Full of insight and memorably original phrasings, the story is leavened by sardonic humor, although the consistently high level of wit in the dialogue sometimes feels unrealistic. Cleave paints an emotion-filled portrait of a damaged city with its inequities amplified by war and of courageous individuals whose connections to one another make them stronger.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

March 15, 2016

Add another sweeping saga to the "London during the Blitz" genre, this one well crafted and compelling but a tad shy of perfect, if only because the romance between the main characters isn't developed convincingly. It's 1939, and 18-year-old Mary North impulsively departs her Swiss boarding school to join the war effort. Her assignment: instructing children who have not evacuated. Mary takes up with mild-mannered Tom and meets his charming friend Alistair, home on leave, on a double date with her long-suffering friend Hilda. The charge between Mary and Alistair is electric, but their loyalty to Tom keeps them from exploring it further. Then the Germans attack, and Alistair is shipped off to Malta, and the grim wartime reality sets in. Flashes of violence and gore add shock value, but the overall tone is nostalgic and bittersweet. As the title implies, there are many ways to be brave, and all should be forgiven. VERDICT Readers who admired the author's Little Bee will snatch this one up and find much to like. Cleave shines when delivering droll banter, and the exchanges between Mary and Hilda and between Alistair and fellow officer Simonson during the Siege of Malta are particularly clever and touching. [See Prepub Alert, 11/16/15.]--Christine Perkins, Whatcom Cty. Lib. Syst., Bellingham, WA

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2015

The author of the No. 1 New York Times best-selling Little Bee and, more recently, Gold (lots of starred reviews), Cleave here opens just as World War II is erupting. Having volunteered for the war effort, upper-crust Mary finds herself teaching children evacuated from the countryside. She's friendly with education administrator Tom, who's worried about recently enlisted friend Alastair, and a love triangle soon forms.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.