1940, Jersey.
When Nazi forces occupy Jersey in the English Channel Islands, Céline Huber, who is married to a German, must decide where her loyalty lies. Love for her island, and fear for her Jewish friend Rachel, soon propel her into a dangerous double life.
Meanwhile, Céline’s husband Fred is conscripted into the Wehrmacht in occupied France. Horrified by Nazi acts of atrocity and torture, he soon becomes a double agent for the French Resistance.
But when things go wrong, and his Nazi masters discover his true allegiance, he finds he has the whole of the German Army on his tail.
How far will Céline go for her best friend? Will Fred make his way home to her?
Or will their lives be changed forever by the brutality of war?
The Occupation by Deborah Swift is published on 22 December, 2019.
Deborah is also the author of three books about the women in Samuel Pepys’s life. The third in the series is Entertaining Mr Pepys. She’s written a feaure for Historia about how her research for this novel led her to wonder: what happened to the animals during the Great Fire of London?