A "delicate and incandescent" novel of love, loss, escape, and the ways the natural world can save us amid the chaos of war ( San Francisco Chronicle).

World War II. Downed during his first mission, James Hunter is taken captive as a German POW. To bide his time, he studies a nest of redstarts at the edge of camp. Some prisoners plot escape; some are shot. And then, one day, James is called to the Kommandant's office. Meanwhile, back home, James's new wife, Rose, is on her own, free in a way she has never known.

Then, James's sister, Enid, loses everything during the Blitz and must seek shelter with Rose. In a cottage near Ashdown Forest, the two women jealously guard secrets, but form a surprising friendship. Each of these characters finds unexpected freedom amid war's privations and discover confinements that come with peace.

"Beautifully written [and] extremely controlled." - The Washington Post

"Lyrical ... Humphreys is a metaphysical novelist; for her, intricate emotional content finds specific analogues in the made world." - The New Yorker

"With her trademark prose-exquisitely limpid-Humphreys convinces us of the birdlike strength of the powerless." -Emma Donoghue

"This riveting novel is a song. Listen." -Richard Bausch