A Captivating Story
ABOUT THE BOOK
As German bombs fall over London in 1940, working-class parents Millie and Reginald Thompson make an impossible choice: they decide to send their eleven-year-old daughter, Beatrix, to America. There, she’ll live with another family for the duration of the war, where they hope she’ll stay safe.
Scared and angry, feeling lonely and displaced, Bea arrives in Boston to meet the Gregorys. Mr. and Mrs. G, and their sons William and Gerald, fold Bea seamlessly into their world. She becomes part of this lively family, learning their ways and their stories, adjusting to their affluent lifestyle. Bea grows close to both boys, one older and one younger, and fills in the gap between them. Before long, before she even realizes it, life with the Gregorys feels more natural to her than the quiet, spare life with her own parents back in England.
As Bea comes into herself and relaxes into her new life—summers on the coast in Maine, new friends clamoring to hear about life across the sea—the girl she had been begins to fade away, until, abruptly, she is called home to London when the war ends.
Desperate as she is not to leave this life behind, Bea dutifully retraces her trip across the Atlantic back to her new, old world. As she returns to post-war London, the memory of her American family stays with her, never fully letting her go, and 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 time, navigating between her two worlds, Beyond That, the Sea emerges as a beautifully written, absorbing novel, full of grace and heartache, forgiveness and understanding, loss and love.
| Length | 12 hours and 18 minutes |
|---|---|
| Author | Laura Spence-Ash |
| Narrator | Ell Potter |
| Audible.com Release Date | March 21, 2023 |
| Publisher | Macmillan Audio |
I love the interesting information that is covered through historical fiction, and this is no exception. In the case of Beyond That, The Sea I realized that during WWII children were sent from London to the USA in an attempt to keep them safe. Through this touching story, I realized how hard it must have been to send a child overseas, and the complications that could occur.
This touching story is narrated beautifully by Ell Potter. She brings the author’s words to life as she shares the story of one eleven-year-old girl who heads across the sea to live with a family in Boston. At the time, I’m sure neither family could foresee the complications of a child biologically belonging to one family yet living for years without another.
Ell Potter does a wonderful job of mastering various voices for the well-developed characters.Â
My Concerns
It develops slowly and, of course, is character driven. Because of this, I’m not sure if I would have liked the book as much as I did the audiobook.
Final Thoughts
The compelling plot unfolds from various viewpoints and extends several decades beyond the war.
If you’re on the fence as to whether to read it or not, jump off the fence and pick it up. It’s a memorable story that is sure to stick with you.
And on a side note, it caused me to research Britain’s evacuation of children during WWII, which I found very interesting.
Thank you @netgalley@macmillan.audio and @celadonbooks for my ALC. I was free, without stipulations, to post my thoughts.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR and NARRATOR
Laura Spence-Ash’s fiction has appeared in One Story, New England Review, Crazyhorse, and elsewhere. Her critical essays and book reviews appear regularly in the Ploughshares blog. She received her MFA in fiction from Rutgers–Newark, and she lives in New Jersey.
Ell Potter is an actor, writer, and award-winning narrator. While training at LAMDA, she was named Audible’s ‘Breakout Star’ and her debut audiobook was subsequently nominated for an Audie. She has since recorded extensively with numerous publishers, winning multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards in the process. Her narrator credits include Hamnet, the ​Winter​ series, ​Dark, Salt, Clear​ (BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week), ​In At The Deep End​, and​ little scratch​. She is also a comedian: her most recent show ​FITTER​ sold out its debut 5-week run at London’s Soho Theatre and was nominated for an Offie. Before training as an actor, Ell read English at the University of Oxford, where she graduated with first class honours and was the winner of the Nigel Smith Memorial Prize for English Literature. She’s therefore officially a Bookworm.
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