Liam's Story - Softcover

On leave from his ship in the autum of 1986, Stephen Elliott meets his distant cousin Zoe for the first time. Drawn into her search for the Elliotts' past, he finds their subsequent affair stirring echoes of an untold family history, revealing truths and conflicts hitherto unsuspected... At the heart of the story is Liam, elder and favourite son of Louisa Elliott. After a bitter quarrel he leaves York to work his passage to Melbourne, later to enlist with the Australians in a war which brings him back to Europe, his family - and Georgina Duncannon. In faded letters, photos and a wartime diary are concealed the fragments of a haunting relationship between Liam and Georgina, conducted against the tragedy of Gallipoli and the Somme. Joining a hip bound for the Middle East and wartorn Persian Gulf, Stephen is faced with disturbing parallels between past and present, just as Zoe, alone at home, is discovering the sedictive power of that piercing, impossible affair. With her first novel, Ann Victoria Roberts told the story of Louisa Elliott. Here, in her exquisitely crafted second novel, she uncovers Louisa's legacy to future generations. Set in York and Australia, against the tensions of the Persian Gulf and all the bitterness of the First World War - recreated here with astonishing power and immediacy - 'Liam's Story' is a passionate and triumphant exploration of the many dimensions of love.