Spanning from England’s anti-fascism protests of 1936 through the aftermath of WWII, this moving, intricately wrought historical novel brings together a young Irish Catholic photographer and a British Jewish medical student, each discovering the price of love, art, and ambition:
In the autumn of 1936, Irish Catholic Kate Grifferty is making her way as a photojournalist in Fleet Street, an unusual job for a woman. At an anti-fascism protest in East London, she meets David Rabatkin, a lanky, brilliant Jewish medical student as ambitious as she is. Their three-month love affair exposes Kate to the dangers and demands of David’s world, where marrying within the Jewish faith is seen as not only preferable, but key to survival. Kate neither expects nor wants to be any man’s wife, hampered by convention. And though she and David are both outsiders, as war looms, other differences between them are thrown into sharp relief: Four years later, Kate is a single mother in Brighton working at her sister’s seaside boarding house, while David tends patients at a busy London hospital as the Blitz rages. But Kate’s challenges and disappointments have only deepened her desire to capture images of life unfurling around her, the beauty and violence, struggles and surprising joys. And soon fate and ambition will align, providing her with the chance to make her mark at last.