Early One Morning - Couverture souple

"Utterly breathtaking."―Redbook

"From the broken Jewish ghetto and dusky countryside of occupied Italy during WWII to the bustling Trastevere cafes of Rome in the 1970s, Virginia Baily offers an affecting contemplation of the past, personal identity, and the complexity and diversity of human bonds. Early One Morning is the sort of book you can't put down and then stays with you, like the best of journeys, long after it's finished."―Anne Korkeakivi, author of An Unexpected Guest

"Early One Morning heralds the arrival of an exciting new voice in fiction, with a story that is instantly engaging, and characters that effortlessly lift from the page and are rendered so rich and full that they wrap themselves around you and refuse to let go. Beautifully written and emotionally taut, Virginia Baily's Early One Morning is a powerhouse of a debut."―Jason Hewitt, author of The Dynamite Room

"Early One Morning isn't just an incandescent novel, but the rarest of reading experiences, offering a view both wrenching and luminous of how love pushes us past what we're capable of, and somehow-impossibly-reclaims us when we're long past saving. Utterly magnificent."―Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife

"Wonderful.... I was completely inside it from the first pages, just that delicious (rare) feeling of knowing you're in safe hands, this writer isn't going to make a mess of anything, or forfeit your trust or your belief. It managed to be so witty and dry and true.... Vividly intelligent, gripping and moving and alive."―Tessa Hadley, author of Clever Girl

"As gripping as any thriller.... [and] crammed with the sort of heart-stopping, heart-breaking scenes that brought a lump to the throat of even this jaded reviewer. Really, really good."―Harry Ritchie, Daily Mail (UK)

"A real treat; a beautifully written account of the long consequences of war, set in a richly evoked Rome of the 1970s."―Philip Hensher, Guardian (UK)

"Baily subtly tugs at your heartstrings and by the end of her novel you're likely to be as desperate as the women in Daniele's life to discover his fate."―Sophie Donnelly, Express (UK)

"A powerful tale of the reverberations of one woman's decision to save a child."―Stylist (UK)

"A powerful story of sacrifice, despair and ultimately redemption."―Eithne Farry, Express Online (UK)

Two strangers save a child in Rome during WWII-a split-second decision that will have powerful reverberations for decades to come.

In 1943, one young woman, Chiara Ravello, is about to flee occupied Rome for the safety of her grandparents' house in the hills. Another has been herded onto a truck with her husband and their children, and will shortly be driven off into the darkness.

In that brief moment, before she has time to think about what she is doing, Chiara makes a decision that changes her life forever. Consumed already by thoughts of the hazardous journey that looms ahead and the sister who needs her constant care, Chiara now finds herself responsible, suddenly, for a child-a child with no papers who refuses to speak.

Three decades later, Chiara lives alone in Rome, an elegant, self-contained, self-possessed woman to all appearances quite content with a life that revolves around work, friends, music, and the theater. But always in the background is the shadow of Daniele, the boy from the truck, whose absence and the havoc he wreaked on her world haunt her every moment. For so long she succeeds in suppressing the painful memories and keeping her heartache at bay, but when she receives a call from a teenage girl with a surprising link to Daniele, Chiara knows that it is time for her to face up to her past.

Suspenseful, inspiring, and gorgeously told, this is an epic novel of love, loss, and war's ripple effects through the years.