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Title details for Fallen Skies by Philippa Gregory - Available

Fallen Skies

A Novel

by Philippa Gregory
Bianca Amato
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
Fallen Skies takes readers to post-World War I England in a suspenseful story about the marriage of a wealthy war hero and an aspiring singer he barely knows.
Can a family's mannered traditions and cool emotions erase the horrors of war from a young couple's past?​

Lily Valance is determined to forget the horrors of the war by throwing herself into the decadent pleasures of the 1920s and pursuing her career as a music hall singer. When she meets Captain Stephen Winters, a decorated veteran, she's immediately drawn to his wealth and status. And Stephen, burdened by his guilt over surviving the Flanders battlefields where so many soldiers perished, sees the possibility of forgetting his anguish in Lily, but his family does not approve.

Lily marries Stephen, only to discover that his family's façade of respectability conceals a terrifying combination of repression, jealousy and violence. When Stephen's terrors merge dangerously close with reality, the truth of what took place in the mud and darkness brings him and all who love him to a terrible reckoning.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    December 31, 2019

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781508260271
      • File size: 620683 KB
      • Duration: 21:33:05

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Philippa Gregory won the 1990 Romantic Novelist of The Year Award, but this post WWI novel is not a romantic novel. The dark, suspenseful story concerns the clearly doomed marriage of a former infantry officer and the aspiring singer who catches his attention. Marie McCarthy narrates with a cool, cultured, perfectly modulated voice, which suits a story set amid the British upper class. The essential message is that those who fell on Flanders fields were better off than some who came home, emotionally and morally damaged beyond redemption. While the characters are memorable and the action at the end compelling, the book is overly long and emotionally draining. This production is recommended for those who have time, enjoy a solid portrayal of a past era, like psychological studies, or enjoy listening to a good reader. D.L.G. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 29, 2008
      After losing her father in the Great War, working-class girl Lily Pears becomes chorus girl Lily Valance to help support her widowed mother in Gregory's moody 1920s historical. When her dreams of being a featured singer in a dance-hall revue are interrupted by her mother's death, Lily accepts a marriage proposal from Stephen Winters, a regular at the stage door. Stephen, a reluctant but decorated WWI enlistee still wakes up screaming from the horrors he witnessed in the war and hopes marriage to the bubbly Lily will dispel his terror. But Lily's entrée into the gloomy Winters family home saps her cheer, and singing onstage becomes her only joy. Predating her popular Tudor series, this novel (originally published in the U.K. in 1994 and being released for the first time stateside) attempts to give equal time to both halves of its unhappy couple with mixed results; the domestic misery and foiled longings will be familiar to fans of Gregory's Boleyn work, but even if this is narrower in scope, it still has plenty of power.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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