From the New York Times bestselling author of The Diamond Eye comes a riveting short story about an impossible connection across two centuries that could make the difference between peace or war.
Yorkshire, 1943. Lily Baines, a bright young debutante increasingly ground down by an endless war, has traded in her white gloves for a set of headphones. It’s her job to intercept enemy naval communications and send them to Bletchley Park for decryption.
One night, she picks up a transmission that isn’t code at all—it’s a cry for help.
An American ship is taking heavy fire in the North Atlantic—but no one else has reported an attack, and the information relayed by the young US officer, Matt Jackson, seems all wrong. The contact that Lily has made on the other end of the radio channel says it’s…2023.
Across an eighty-year gap, Lily and Matt must find a way to help each other: Matt to convince her that the war she’s fighting can still be won, and Lily to help him stave off the war to come. As their connection grows stronger, they both know there’s no telling when time will run out on their inexplicable link.
Another book that isn't my usual fare but I absolutely loved it! My husband loved it and my son loved it... We listened to the audio while on a car journey and it covered off the "to and from" trip perfectly as it was under 2hrs long.
The story is a little bit of historical fiction mixed with... I have no idea! Speculative fiction? Science fiction? It really doesn't matter as whatever it is is blended perfectly together.
A signal anomaly leads to Lily, a WWII communications officer at Bletchley, intercepting signals from what she thinks is an American ship getting destroyed by the Nazis. She listens as the signals officer - Matt - keeps transmitting to the end. It's horrifying, emotional and utterly gripping.
When Lily puts the impossible facts together and realises that this is something happening in the future she hatches a plan to help that signal operator save his ship... A plan that will take 80 years to come to fruition.
Lily and Matt's connection is fantastic. You really feel the bond between them stretching across time.
Kate Quinn is insanely talented. She pulls you into this story, hijacks your emotions, and makes you feel like you know these characters - really know them. In a short story, that's almost impossible to achieve but she has a way with words that is magical.
The story left me feeling so many things... So many illogical things. I genuinely felt like I'd lost something! An overwhelming sadness that Matt never got to meet Lily. Relief that, when all was said and done, they got to speak one last time before the signal anomaly closed.
There were tears when he visited Bletchley...
It was bonkers.
This is a story that will stay with me forever. I've been recommending it to everyone.
It's just perfect.
PS - The audiobook was very well done! The narrators were spot on and conveyed all the emotion, built the tension, and put the cherry on top of the story cake!
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