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A sweeping, tenderhearted love story: the tale of two families living through the Second World War on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean, and the young woman who calls them both her own As German bombs fall over London in 1940, working-class parents Millie and Reginald Thompson make the impossible choice to send their eleven-year-old daughter, Beatrix, to America. There, she''ll live with another family for the duration of the war.
Scared and lonely, 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 learns their ways and stories, adjusting to their affluent lifestyle. Before she even realises it, life with the Gregorys feels more natural to her than the quiet life she left in England.
As Bea grows up, with summers on the coast in Maine, new friends and traditions, the girl she was begins to fade away, until, abruptly, she is called home to London when the war ends. In post-war London, the memory of Bea''s American family stays with her, never fully letting her go as she tries to move on and pursue love and a life of her own.
Beyond That, the Sea is a beautifully written, absorbing novel, full of grace and heartache, forgiveness and understanding, loss and love.
