The Metal Heart

The beautiful and atmospheric story of freedom and love that will grip your heart

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Orkney, 1940. On a remote island, a prisoner-of-war camp is constructed to house five hundred Italian soldiers, where a freezing winter and divided community await them.

Orphaned sisters Dorothy and Constance volunteer to nurse the men. Dot is drawn to Cesare, a young man fighting on the wrong side, broken by war and destruction.

The soldiers spend their days building a secret barricade between the islands. By night, however, they construct a reminder of their native land - an exquisite chapel.

As tensions between the islanders and outsiders grow, the sisters' loyalty is tested. Will Dot choose love, or family?

A tense, passionate and deeply atmospheric novel about a community in wartime - and two defiant hearts. Orkney was so perfectly realised, too, that I almost felt windblown. I loved it all the more so for having read it during lockdown: Caroline's beautiful transported me entirely to another time and land
Susan Fletcher

About Caroline Lea

Caroline Lea grew up on the island of Jersey. The Glass Woman, her debut, is a gothic thriller set during the Icelandic witch trials. The Metal Heart, a Waterstones Scottish Book of the Month, is an epic Second World War love story; Prize Women reveals a feminist scandal at the heart of the roaring 20s. Her latest novel reimagines Mary Shelley and the writing of Frankenstein.

Details

Imprint: Penguin
Published: 11/11/2021
ISBN: 9781405944359
Length: 400 pages
Dimensions: 197mm x 24mm x 129mm
Weight: 275g
Price: £10.99

All editions

The Metal Heart

The beautiful and atmospheric story of freedom and love that will grip your heart

Format:

Buy the book from:

A powerful Second World War love story. As tensions grow between the Italian PoWs and the Orkney men, the scene is set for a dramatic reckoning. Lea writes beautifully of island life and love, and the sacrifices that both demand

Atmospheric, heart-wrenching, evocative - this is a gorgeously written story about the scars we carry with us, and how they can be overcome

Uses the true story of the building of the chapel on Orkney by Italian prisoners during the Second World War to fashion a fast-moving and very touching story of sisterly devotion and passionate love

A stunning novel . . . impeccably researched, gorgeously written, and deeply evocative of Orkney and its wild beauty. I loved this tale of sisters, salvation and sacrifice from the first page

Confirms Lea as a highly original and inventive writer

A story of innocents caught up in the machinery of war. Exquisitely researched, beautifully told, this tiny corner of Scotland came alive

Myth, legend, fear and superstition all play a part in this intensely atmospheric novel

A beautiful, heart-breaking tale of grief, love and the bond between sisters. I read it in a day, desperate to know what would happen

Lea deftly taps into an age-old theme: suspicion and mistrust of outsiders. Woven throughout The Metal Heart is the potent reminder that there are always innocents caught up in the cruel, unforgiving machinery of war

About Caroline Lea

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