The Secrets of Rochester Place by Iris Costello (Penguin)

A beautiful story of love and survival, going on beyond the time. Just the location stays the same, Rochester Place.

An Irish woman called Mary rings Corinne, an emergency services operator, and says she’s trapped under rubble in a house that no longer exists, a house that was bombed in the Blitz, more than 70 years ago. Corinne is immediately immersed in a mystery of a strange phone call and starts to investigate on her own what was going on in the middle of WWII. 

In the spring of 1937, a young Basque girl Teresa is evacuated to London from Guernica. When she hears the news that Bilbao had fallen and called out for Mari, the goddess of the mountains, the universe sends her an Irish storyteller with cherry-red shoes instead.

This is a story about neverending love, hatred, ignorance, bigotry, refugees, goodness, and hope. Everything is possible and not only by imagination.

The novel is fascinating, written with great compassion for all the characters, past and current times. All of them are well developed and relatable. Mary is a modern woman, even though she lives in times when differences between men and women were greater than today. Teresa is just a child, but she has to grow up fast.

Can a house bring the family together again? Does everything happen in circles?

An enjoyable and emotional read. Hearty book.

4/5