Children's War

MONIQUE CHARLESWORTH was born in Birkenhead, England, and has lived in France and Germany. A graduate of the National Film and Television School, she has written television dramas for the BBC. She is the author of four novels, including the highly acclaimed The Children's War, which was partly a fictionalised story of her mother's escape from Germany during the War. She lives with her husband in London.

‘Breathlessly suspenseful … Charlesworth uses two apparent opposites – a timid, sensitive Nazi boy, a bold, red-headed Jewish girl – as a way of exploring what good people have in common and how innocents learn to be decent in a world swarming with evil. She moves her story through fast, terrifying intricacies of plot: journeys, battles, smuggled papers, love affairs, carefully calculated loyalties, heroic sacrifices and endless duplicity … Charlesworth’s greatest success is to show how these children grow into morally mature adults, learning about treachery not just by seeing it around them, but by making difficult and sometimes terrible choices themselves … Engrossing.’ —POLLY SHULMAN, NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW; ‘The Children’s War breathes a well-earned authenticity, even as it recounts circumstances that test human character to belief-defying limits.’ —EVA HOFFMAN, author of LOST IN TRANSLATION; ‘It is one of the strengths of this novel that children are seen not only as victims of warring states, but of the emotional entanglements of their parents … [in] the intensely moving story of Ilse’s emotional awakening.’ — GERARD WOODWARD, THE TELEGRAPH; ‘Richly satisfying and utterly absorbing … Charlesworth tells the story so artfully that she brings an utterly fresh perspective to bear on familiar psychological territory.’ —ROBERT MACNEIL, THE WASHINGTON POST; ‘[Charlesworth] has a keen eye for detail and wide sympathies. She tells it as it really was … Sometimes you get the feeling that a certain novel is one that its author has been preparing for years to write. This is such a one, and it is really very good indeed.’ —ALLAN MASSIE, THE SCOTSMAN; ‘Rich in local color and character detail … powerful and poignant. With her cinematic eye for description and her story’s propulsive narrative rhythm, Charlesworth thrusts us into the very heart of chaos.’ —THE BOSTON GLOBE; ‘Ilse grows from a passive child, observing events, into an active participant, driven by the same mixed motives as everyone else. With Ilse as unblinking guide, Charlesworth travels the morally ambiguous alleyways of war to create a deeply satisfying read full of richly complicated characters.’ —KIRKUS REVIEWS (starred)