Beyond That, The Sea

A sweeping,tenderhearted love storyBeyond Thatthe Sea by Laura Spence-Ash tells the story of two families living through World War II on opposite sides of the Atlantic Oceanand the shyirresistible young woman who will call them both her own. As German bombs fall over London in 1940working-class parents Millie and Reginald Thompson make an impossible choice: they decide to send their eleven-year-old daughterBeatrixto America. TheresheΓÇÖll live with another family for the duration of the warwhere they hope sheΓÇÖll stay safe. Scared and angryfeeling lonely and displacedBea arrives in Boston to meet the Gregorys. Mr. and Mrs. Gand their sons William and Geraldfold Bea seamlessly into their world. She becomes part of this lively familylearning their ways and their storiesadjusting to their affluent lifestyle. Bea grows close to both boysone older and one youngerand fills in the gap between them. Before longbefore she even realizes itlife with the Gregorys feels more natural to her than the quietspare life with her own parents back in England. As Bea comes into herself and relaxes into her new lifeΓÇösummers on the coast in Mainenew friends clamoring to hear about life across the seaΓÇöthe girl she had been begins to fade awayuntilabruptlyshe is called home to London when the war ends. Desperate as she is not to leave this life behindBea dutifully retraces her trip across the Atlantic back to her newold world. As she returns to post-war Londonthe memory of her American family stays with hernever fully letting her goand always pulling on her heart as she tries to move on and pursue love and a life of her own. As we follow Bea over timenavigating between her two worldsBeyond Thatthe Sea emerges as a beautifully writtenabsorbing novelfull of grace and heartacheforgiveness and understandingloss and love.