Love in the Blitz: The Long-Lost Letters of a Brilliant Young Woman to Her Beloved on the Front by Eileen Alexander
Love in the Blitz: The Long-Lost Letters of a Brilliant Young Woman to Her Beloved on the Front by Eileen Alexander
On July 17, 1939, Eileen Alexander, a recent graduate of Girton College, Cambridge, writes to her fellow Cambridge student Gershon Ellenbogen from her hospital bed. She and Gershon had been involved in a car accident, and she wishes to assure him that "the accident was not down to your carelessness but to pure chance, and that I owe you nothing but profound gratitude for the friendship and loyalty you have shown me during all these weeks of illness." So begins a stirring correspondence that lasts seven years and spans many hundreds of letters.
As Eileen and Gershon's relationship flourishes from friendship and admiration into passion and love, the tensions between Germany, Russia, and the rest of Europe reach a crescendo. When war is declared, Gershon heads for Cairo to work for British Military Intelligence in the Royal Air Force, and Eileen forgoes her studies to work in the Air Ministry to help with the war effort.
As cinematic as Atonement and written with the intimacy of Elena Ferrante's Neopolitan quartet, Love in the Blitz offers an extraordinary view on life in London during World War II and a revealing portrait of an ordinary young woman trying to carve a place for herself in a time of uncertainty. As the Luftwaffe begins its bombardment of England, Eileen, like her fellow Britons, carries on while her loved ones are called up to fight, some never to return home.
Written over the course of the conflict, Eileen's letters provide a vivid and personal glimpse of this historic era. Yet throughout the turmoil and bloodshed, one thing is constant: her beloved Gershon, who remains a source of strength and support even after he, too, joins the fighting. Though his letters have been lost to time, the bolstering force of his love for Eileen comes alive in the beautifully detailed letters she sends him.
Equal parts heartrending and heartwarming, Love in the Blitz is a timeless romance and a deeply personal story of life and resilience amid the violence and terror of war.
Harper, Hardcover, 1st Edition, 1st Printing, 2020
THIS IS A BRAND NEW BOOK. THERE IS A BLACK "CLOSEOUT/REMAINDER" MARK ON THE BOTTOM PAGE EDGES.