The German Boy

A moving, inter-war family saga The German Boy from Patricia Wastvedt, the Orange Prize Longlisted author of The River. 
 
In 1947, Elisabeth Mander's German nephew comes to stay: Stefan Landau, her dead sister's teenage son, whom she hates and loves before she's even set eyes on him. 
 
Orphaned by the war and traumatised by the last, vicious battles of the Hitler Youth, Stefan brings with him to England only a few meagre possessions. Among them a portrait of a girl with long copper hair by a young painter called Michael Ross - and with it the memory, both painful 
and precious, of her life and that time between the wars. 
 
Spanning decades and generations, The German Boy tells the moving story of two families entangled by love and friendship, divided by prejudice and war, and of a brief encounter between a woman and a man that touched each of their lives forever. 
 
'An absorbing literary saga ... a sophisticated and subtly woven story' Daily Mail 
 
'Hypnotic, atmospheric and exquisitely written. A novel I won't forget' Lucinda Riley, author of Hothouse Flower 
 
'A love story at its centre which will make your heart ache' Julia Green, author of Blue Moon 
 
'A heart-rending story of epic proportions, thrilling and utterly captivating. I am haunted by it still' Suzannah Dunn, author of The Confession of Katherine Howard 
 
Born in 1954, Patricia Wastvedt grew up in Blackheath, south London, and spent her summers in Kent. She has a degree in Creative Arts and an MA in Creative Writing, and her first novel, The River, written in her late forties, was long-listed for the Orange Prize. She teaches at Bath Spa University, and is also a manuscript editor. She lives and writes in a cottage in Somerset.

An absorbing literary saga ... a sophisticated and subtly woven story

Born in 1954, Patricia Wastvedt grew up in Blackheath, south London, and spent her summers in Kent. She has a degree in Creative Arts and an MA in Creative Writing, and her first novel, The River, written in her late forties, was long-listed for the Orange Prize. She teaches at Bath Spa University, and is also a manuscript editor. She lives and writes in a cottage in Somerset.

In 1947, Elisabeth Mander's German nephew comes to stay: Stefan Landau, her dead sister's teenage son, whom she hates and loves before she's even set eyes on him. 
 
Orphaned by the war and traumatised by the last, vicious battles of the Hitler Youth, Stefan brings with him to England only a few meagre possessions. Among them a portrait of a girl with long copper hair by a young painter called Michael Ross - and with it the memory, both painful 
and precious, of her life and that time between the wars. 
 
Spanning decades and generations, The German Boy tells the moving story of two families entangled by love and friendship, divided by prejudice and war, and of a brief encounter between a woman and a man that touched each of their lives forever.

Tricia Wastvedt

A quite remarkable first novel - strongly atmospheric, memorable characters, and a compelling structure. I was both moved and impressed - it really is a remarkable achievement

A finale that du Maurier herself would have been proud of, so terrible are the events

The Orange Prize long listed debut novel by the author of The German Boy 
 
In 1958, in a small Devon village, on an idyllic summer afternoon, two children are drowned. Their parents, Isabel and Robert, are overcome with grief but, as time passes, their tragedy becomes part of the everyday fabric of village life. 
 
One summer's day, thirty years later, Anna arrives. She comes to the village on a whim, hoping to start afresh - and, without telling anyone she is pregnant, goes to live with Isabel. For a time the women find solace in each other's company, but the baby's arrival causes powerful feelings of loss and heartbreak to surface, and Anna must question whether Isabel's feelings towards her child are entirely benign . . .

Tricia Wastvedt

Praise for The River

A quite remarkable first novel - strongly atmospheric, memorable characters, and a compelling structure. I was both moved and impressed - it really is a remarkable achievement

A finale that du Maurier herself would have been proud of, so terrible are the events

Books by Tricia Wastvedt

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