55 pages • 1 hour read
Kate MortonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
London, 2011. Laurel visits 25 Campden Grove, where the Jenkinses lived during the war. The young mother she saw earlier opens the door and welcomes her inside. The woman’s husband, Marty, a theater teacher, wrote his doctoral thesis on Laurel. Marty’s grandfather was a devoted fan and saw every one of her plays. Laurel asks about Vivien Jenkins, and Marty reveals that she is the family benefactor who left this house to his great-grandfather Bertie during the war.
Marty tells Laurel the story of how his grandfather was found beaten and thrown into the Thames in 1941. He was put in prison for being involved in a supposed blackmail attempt, then sent to France to fight. Marty shows Laurel the war photographs, and Laurel realizes that his grandfather was Jimmy Metcalfe, and Bertie was Jimmy’s aging father. Marty tells her that Jimmy was in love with Marty’s grandmother and they shared a happy life, but that before his grandparents married, Jimmy looked up an old flame, someone he’d known during the war. Marty shows Laurel another picture, and Laurel is about to identify her mother when Marty says the woman is Vivien Jenkins.
By Kate Morton
British Literature
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Coming-of-Age Journeys
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Family
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Friendship
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Grief
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Guilt
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Historical Fiction
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Mothers
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Mystery & Crime
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Popular Book Club Picks
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Romance
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