It’s 1959 and time for 18-year-old Sophie’s real life to start.
Her existence in the village of Poynsdean, Sussex, with her austere foster-father, the Reverend Osbert Knox, and his frustrated wife Alice, is stultifying.
She finds diversion and excitement in a love affair, but soon realizes that if she wants to live life on a bigger canvas she must take matters into her own hands.
She dreams of escape to Paris, the wartime home her French mother fled before her birth.
Getting there will take spirit and ingenuity, but it will be her chance to discover more about her family background, and, perhaps, to find a place where she can finally belong.
When Sophie eventually arrives in a Paris arising from the ashes of the war, it’s both everything she imagined, and not at all what she expected.
Bonjour, Sophie by Elizabeth Buchan is published on 4 April, 2024.
Read Elizabeth’s feature about how illness forced her to rethink how she would research this book in The surprising joys of armchair travel.
We’ve got details of more than 150 books coming out this year for you to browse if you like historical fiction.
