Jason Hewitt's ambitious and often gripping debut novel, set during the second world war, weaves two storylines. The first concerns the cellist-turned-reluctant-Nazi-soldier Heiden, who heads to war-torn England on a secret mission, all the while remembering his past love affair with a fellow musician. The second revolves around 11-year-old Lydia, who returns home to Suffolk, to her deserted village, only to be surprised by a wounded Heiden. The two are forced into an unwilling cohabitation, with the threat of German invasion leading to mounting tension between them.

Hewitt has a strong sense of narrative pace and brings a strange poetry to his depiction of an exhausted and empty world, apparently waiting for the inevitable end. He also manages to make Heiden a sympathetic character, giving him both pathos and charm, even while his actions are often indefensible. Lydia's character, perhaps intentionally, remains more opaque until the enigmatic coda, which follows a tense and dramatic climax – a fitting end to a very promising first novel.