Fly Away Blackbird by the late Irish author Jerrard Tickell (
Wikipedia), whose WWII comedy novel
Appointment with Venus has been twice adapted to film, is his standalone literary drama novel with strong f/m romantic elements taking place in the early 20th century in and around London and Vienna, centred around exploring the budding connection and eventual bittersweet love story between an Austrian refugee child and the adventurous Irish nephew of her London hostess, who form an unexpected bond and reunite years later when they are both grown, living in uneasy times which may prove insurmountable odds to their continuing relationship, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher Endeavour Press's Odyssey imprint.
This was originally published in 1936 by William Morrow & Co.
Currently free @
Amazon (available to Canadians & in the UK and pretty much everywhere else Amazon sells worldwide, since this is being done via their KDP Select exclusive-or-else program)
Description
Love defies all odds…
When Nicola first arrives in London, she is only eleven years old, just off a children’s Famine Train from Austria, and plastered with tags and labels identifying who she is.
She refers to herself as “an ex-enemy” of England — her father, left behind, is a colonel who served with the Hussars — and awaits someone to come and take charge of her in this strange new city.
When Kathleen Conroy arrives at Victoria Station to pick Nicola up, she doesn’t come alone — her nephew, Peter, accompanies her.
For Nicola, the romance of life seems to begin from the very moment that Peter Conroy, nineteen, Irish, and adventurous, finds her on the platform.
For Peter, meeting the young Austrian girl marks the beginning of the rest of his life; fired from his job, he sets out to see the world and, in the process, discovers the real thrill of living.
Years later, Peter and Nicola are reunited, and come to see each other in a new light.
Nicola, grown into a beautiful and thoughtful young woman, immediately captures Peter’s attention, while in return, Nicola senses in Peter something that none of her other beaux have been able to offer.
Theirs is an idyllic love in an unstable time that suffers from the harshness of the reality.
Undiminished by years of separation, Peter and Nicola rekindle their love in the face of impossible odds.
Theirs is a poignant, heartening love story, set against a background of teeming London, the green Home counties, the sodden Midlands, and a shabby but enchanting Vienna.
Fly Away Blackbird is a bittersweet tale of romance that struggles against all odds to survive.