22 Britannia Road Book

World War II has just ended and Silvana Novak and her eight-year-old son Aurek arrive in Ipswich, England, where they are reunited with Silvana’s husband, Janusz, after six years of estrangement. Relieved and deeply grateful to have his family back, Janusz has set up a brand-new life for them in a small house in a town in East Anglia. He’s found work in an engineering firm and he’s hoping they can start, despite what they have lived through. Aurek, who’s grown up eating raw bird’s eggs and tree bark, will have to learn how to tie his shoes and interact with children his age. Silvana will have to readjust to living in a real house, with a real bed and bathtub. Fiercely protective of her son, she will have to learn how to trust other people again, including her husband. Slowly but surely, they embark on this process together: Silvana finds work at an area factory; Janusz teaches them English; Aurek begins school and makes a new friend. They start to socialize with their neighbors who seem to accept them as one of their own. And Janusz builds a beautiful English garden with a treehouse for Aurek. Yet even as their shared dream of postwar life takes shape, the past continues to haunt them. Both Silvana and Janusz are harboring painful secrets about what really happened during their separate wars. And these secrets are threatening to tear their fragile new bond apart. Softcover 320 pages