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4.0 

Beyond That, the Sea

By Laura Spence-Ash
Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash digital book - Fable

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Publisher Description

“Spence-Ash has written the novel in eight points of view, but each character is utterly three-dimensional and distinct. This debut novel captivated me from start to finish."
—Julia Quinn, author of the Bridgerton Series

A sweeping, tenderhearted love story, Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash tells the story of two families living through World War II on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean, and the shy, irresistible young woman who will call them both her own.


As German bombs fall over London in 1940, working-class parents Millie and Reginald Thompson make an impossible choice: they decide to send their eleven-year-old daughter, Beatrix, to America. There, she’ll live with another family for the duration of the war, where they hope she’ll stay safe.

Scared and angry, feeling lonely and displaced, Bea arrives in Boston to meet the Gregorys. Mr. and Mrs. G, and their sons William and Gerald, fold Bea seamlessly into their world. She becomes part of this lively family, learning their ways and their stories, adjusting to their affluent lifestyle. Bea grows close to both boys, one older and one younger, and fills in the gap between them. Before long, before she even realizes it, life with the Gregorys feels more natural to her than the quiet, spare life with her own parents back in England.

As Bea comes into herself and relaxes into her new life—summers on the coast in Maine, new friends clamoring to hear about life across the sea—the girl she had been begins to fade away, until, abruptly, she is called home to London when the war ends.

Desperate as she is not to leave this life behind, Bea dutifully retraces her trip across the Atlantic back to her new, old world. As she returns to post-war London, the memory of her American family stays with her, never fully letting her go, and always pulling on her heart as she tries to move on and pursue love and a life of her own.

As we follow Bea over time, navigating between her two worlds, Beyond That, the Sea emerges as a beautifully written, absorbing novel, full of grace and heartache, forgiveness and understanding, loss and love.

1185 Reviews

4.0
Slightly Smiling Face“A tale spanning generations, from WWII to the 1970s What would you do if war was coming and you had the chance to send you child to safety? Would you send them away? In 1940 Beatrix, a young girl from London, is sent to live with the Gregory family just outside of Boston until the end of the war. The story that unfolds is one of growing up in the most unexpected way, of finding yourself in the hardest of times, of learning to love where you didn’t expect to. A truly captivating story about love and loss and war and peace. I thought the story got a little slow around the halfway point but I really enjoyed reading about all the different people and what they went through. There’s so much love and grief and self discovery woven into the pages of this book. If you enjoy historical fiction that focuses more on the people of that time than the time itself this one is absolutely for you!”

About Laura Spence-Ash

Laura Spence-Ash’s fiction has appeared in One Story, New England Review, Crazyhorse, and elsewhere. Her critical essays and book reviews appear regularly in the Ploughshares blog. She received her MFA in Fiction from Rutgers-Newark, and she lives in New Jersey.

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