One Moonlit Night: The unmissable new novel from the million-copy Sunday Times bestselling author of A Beautiful Spy

Product Information

We are thrilled to see Caradog Prichard’s work adapted by the talented Marc Evans in its native language.

Alone in the midst of chaos, her husband Philip has been missing for ten months since the British army’s retreat from Dunkirk, Maddie takes Sarah and Alice to Knyghton in Norfolk to stay with Philip’s elderly Aunt Gussie. Maddie is caught in limbo, unable to grieve for Philip, unable to make decisions, not accepting his probable death, while living in an isolated country house – where Philip spent his childhood – which is the focus of long-held rumour and superstition in the nearby village. Initially she feels very unwelcome and begins to feel she may have made a mistake, however as time progresses she begins to form bonds with them and they all start to settle. Yeah and some cheek clapping. Wtf is this writing? Why do characters think or say one thing but do the other for no good reason? Is that what the story was trying to say? Lust conquers all...including common sense?

Last on

When the family home in London is bombed in the early 1940s, Maddie and her two young daughters take refuge in Norfolk, in the country house where Maddie’s husband Philip spent the summers of his childhood. But Philip is gone, believed to have been killed in action in northern France. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Maddie refuses to give up hope that she and Philip will some day be reunited. In chapter I, we meet the unnamed narrator, a naïve, curious, and at times uncannily perceptive boy who lives with his widowed Mam (mother), to whom he is utterly devoted. He speaks in broad North Walian vernacular – which remains perceptible to some extent in the English-language version. Thus, you will still find untranslated Welsh words in the text, especially the frequently uttered “Dew” (pronounced du or dyu), an exclamation of exasperation or annoyance. A Welshism, if you like – defined by some modern-day wags as Wenglish. I have enjoyed this book , maddie was such a great character who experienced a very awful time during the war with the air raid and bombing if her house in London and knowing that her husband Philip was missing presumed dead in France . The biggest problem was the handling of infidelity. It felt haphazardly forced to have an excuse to include the words "loyalty and betrayal" in the book's blurb. It is presented as something that happens rather than something that people do or choose to do for a believable reason. It just happened and the immersion was lost.

This book is beautifully written with wonderful characters you soon care about and an involving storyline. There’s enough going on to keep you interested, but not too much that you become confused. I especially liked Maddie and could relate to her trying to bring up her children by herself, while working as an illustrator. I also loved the setting of Knyghton and the farmland around it, the nature and countryside. I also enjoyed the novel being set in WWII and following what happened to Philip too. As the English translator of this book, I'm probably more than a little biased in my appraisal. That having been said, I remain firmly of the opinion that this is one of the greatest novels ever written. Anyway, Philip has a suspicion about Lyle and asks Maddie if there was anything between them. Her exact words are: "not really", "I felt lost", "nothing happened", "I didn't let it." Yet their exuberance doesn’t mask the darker reality of their lives. In just the first chapter the narrator encounters an epileptic fit, suicide, illicit sex in the woods, and domestic violence. These don’t cause the boys any deep anxiety however; a sign perhaps that they are such common place occurrences they don’t warrant any commentary.Obviously if Grace is waiting in a tea-shop for an unknown woman in 1977, at the beginning of the novel, she can’t have vanished into thin air or been murdered in 1941 towards the end! Maddie and her two young daughters; Sarah and Grace have to leave London when their home is destroyed in a bombing raid. Maddie’s husband Philip is missing, last seen with his squadron somewhere in Northern France. Although One Moonlit Night is set during WW2, we only see what life was like in an isolated country community, far away from the dangers in the city. The story is told from the point of view of Maddie, along with chapters narrated by Philip telling how he is trying to find a way home. It is a perilous journey and we can only hope he will survive long enough to safely return.

This has been voted the greatest novel written in Welsh. It was published in 1961 and translated into English in 1995. The setting is the North Wales village of Bethesda, which was a community built around a slate quarry. The narrative voice is that of a young boy at various ages (well, it’s slightly more complicated than that …) and it happens around the time of the First World War, just before, during and just after. The author Caradog Prichard was born in 1904 and spent his childhood in Bethesda, so there is certainly an element of autobiography. One particular similarity is what happens to the child’s mother in the novel. As with Prichard’s own mother, she has mental health issues and ends up in the local asylum. The descriptions are vivid and harrowing. Prichard’s mother spent almost forty years in an asylum. He was a journalist, moving to London. He wrote some poetry and this novel. Rachel Hore has been a go-to author of mine for some years, and One Moonlit Night was a completely engrossing saga about a family during the Second World War. There are secrets and betrayals that exist, burdening the family members as tragedies divide them. Rachel Hore is an expert at historical fiction, especially during the war years and this new novel is no exception. I was immediately swept into the story as Maddie and her two young daughters are made homeless by the bombs falling in London. Maddie is an unusual character for the time, a talented artist, who earns her living by illustrating children’s books. The characters are all well drawn and believable, the rural setting used to good effect, and the haunting atmosphere in the old house adds to the mystery surrounding Flora’s death and why nobody wants to talk about her.

Rachel Gore’s latest is historical fiction, set during WW2. It is the story of a family and secrets that have been concealed for decades. Why Simon & Schuster didn’t do these cuts, (which would have taken me 15 minutes max,) I have no idea.

An emotive story recommended to those readers that enjoy historical romance novels set in this period.The boy, I guess about 10 years old, has several graphic encounters, from dying to death to mental illness, that are told without prejudice or judgement, and because of that, all the more unsettling. Roaming silently amidst sadistic teachers, priests, policemen and illness, the boy is observant, but aware of his inability to alter what is going on around him. He expresses himself only in that he will not work in the slate quarry. The story is a first-person narrative, the life in the village told by the eyes of a boy around 10 years old (the books is not very chronological, but it seems to span about three, four years of time). His father is dead and he lives with his mother. As he tells his story, he sees everything with the eyes of a child (the author is very successful in this), the good and the bad - he tells us about a game of football, then a suicide, then he getting lost in the valleys, the chase of a rapist, etc. His feelings and reactions are very well done. Trying to make a living as a book illustrator, Maddie is seldom without a pencil and paper. But when she draws the face of an unfamiliar young girl, enigmatic, mysterious, she doesn’t know where her inspiration came from. Instinctively she keeps her drawing secret, not wanting to upset the fragile atmosphere at Knyghton. A secret is being kept, by Aunt Gussie, Philip’s cousin Lyle who runs the Knyghton farm, by family retainers, the Fleggs, and Maddie is sure it surrounds this mysterious young woman. The novel is an account of childhood, and depicts a mother-son relationship, seen from the viewpoint of the son. It is set in Bethesda, Wales around the years 1915–1920, in the midst of the North Wales quarrying areas. Bethesda is only referred to as "the Village", but neighbouring places are given their real names. [1] The novel has autobiographical echoes. [2] Prichard wrote the novel in middle age and it was completed after his mother's death in 1954.