Crooked Heart

"A wonderfully old-fashioned Dickensian novel . . . both darkly funny and deeply touching" from the bestselling author of Old Baggage (The New York Times Book Review). When Noel Bostock-aged ten, no family-is evacuated from London to escape the Nazi bombardment during World War II, he lands in a suburb northwest of the city with Vera Sedge-a thirty-six-year old widow drowning in debts and dependents. Always desperate for money, she's unscrupulous about how she gets it. Noel's mourning his godmother Mattie, a former suffragette. Wise beyond his years, raised with a disdain for authority and an eclectic attitude toward education, he has little in common with other children and even less with the impulsive Vee, who hurtles from one self-made crisis to the next. The war's provided unprecedented opportunities for making money, but what Vee needs-and what she's never had-is a cool head and the ability to make a plan. On her own, she's a disaster. With Noel, she's a team. Together, they cook up a scheme. Crisscrossing the bombed suburbs of London, Vee starts to make a profit and Noel begins to regain his interest in life. But there are plenty of other people making money out of the war-and some of them are dangerous. Noel may have been moved to safety, but he isn't actually safe at all . . . "A dark comedy, moving between drollery, pathos, farce and harrowing moments of tragic insight." -The Guardian "At the crooked heart of this lovely novel is an odd-couple relationship reminiscent of Moses and Addie in the film Paper Moon." -Nick Hornby, New York Times-bestselling author