If you like nostalgic stories, this heartfelt tale will be right up your street. It certainly was mine. In this novella, we follow Edie from the age of four to one hundred and two. There is a lot packed into these 137 pages.
Sweet young Edie has a great deal to cope with, including evacuation from Barrow to Newcastle. Although this happened long before my time, her childhood thoughts reminded me of my own. The author has a wonderful way with words, and Edie’s story made me both sad and laugh out loud.
As Edie tells her story to her daughter, there are poignant moments and others touched by mystery. I loved the way she viewed the adults around her through a child’s eyes. Equally moving were the glimpses of Edie at the other end of her life, struggling to get through her days.
There is a twist, which I guessed just before the final reveal.
Katherine Black is an extremely versatile writer, with no two books the same. This one felt unique. At the end, she explains how she wove many of her own memories into the story. That made perfect sense to me, as I’d felt throughout that this was no ordinary tale. There was something incredibly personal about it.
Under Iron Skies takes you on a journey through working-class northern England, filled with colourful characters and moments that stay with you. By the time you reach the end, you’ll feel quite emotional
Highly recommended.
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Book Blurb and Link
BOMBS WEREN’T THE WORST THING THAT HAPPENED TO EDIE SIMMONS
Barrow-in-Furness, 1936.
Edie Simmons sees a huge whale floating in the sky. Five years later, that sky isn’t pretty; the whale has been replaced by the Blitz. Her mother is gone. Her father is drinking. And Edie is sent to relatives she barely knows, carrying memories no child should have to understand. But war leaves secrets.
Years later, Edie returns to the town she escaped and is haunted by the story of a dead man. And in 2024, at ninety-two years old, Edie has a final story.
She is telling it to Lily.
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