The Dreaming Suburb

By R.F. Delderfield

Book Overview

Between the wars, the lives of four neighboring English families intersect in this "highly recommended" saga by a New York Times-bestselling author (Sunday Express).

In the spring of 1919, his wife's death brings Sergeant Jim Carver home from the front. He returns to be a single parent to his seven children in a place he has never lived: Number Twenty, Manor Park Avenue, in a South London suburb.

The Carvers' neighbor Eunice Fraser, at Number Twenty-Two, has also known tragedy. Her soldier husband was killed, leaving her and her eight-year-old son, Esme, to fend for themselves.

At Number Four, Edith Clegg takes in lodgers and looks after her sister, Becky, whose mind has been shattered by a past trauma.

No one knows much about the Friths, at Number Seventeen, who moved to the Avenue before the war.

The first book in the two-part historical series the Avenue, which also includes The Avenue Goes to War, The Dreaming Suburb takes readers into the everyday lives of these English families between World War I and World War II, as their hopes, dreams, and struggles are played out against a radically changing world.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1504049292
• ISBN13: 9781504049290
• Release Date: January 2018
• Publisher: Open Road Media
• Length: 581 Pages
• Weight: 2.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

BACK COVER REVIEW

Brilliantly paced, rich and exciting in narrative, The Dreaming Suburb, Volume I of The Avenue, is an extraordinary novel of people whose lives are intertwined in the years between the two wars... Jim Carver - A tough, resolute war veteran, he returns from the trenches to build a better life for his family on the Avenue. Archie Carver - Jim's oldest son, smart, ruthless, he has a quick eye for financial profits and beautiful women. Esme Fraser - Young and handsome, he finds that no matter how much he tries, he can't escape the passion he feels for a sensual, amoral woman. Elaine Frith - Beautiful and ruthless, she uses her charms to snare the man she thinks will give her wealth. Ted Hartnell - Dashing, talented, he finds himself driven by the lure of the new jazz music and goes on to fame in show business. But their lives are soon to feel the threat of Hitler, and the Nazi bombs that fall on the beautiful London street are the horrible clarion call to war. And all the hopes, dreams and lives of the people on the Avenue are forged to a fighting force to defend all that they hold dear.