The Larcher

In a nursing home, an old woman with reduced faculties has long-buried memories awakened by a novel set in the era of her childhood. In that story, in a 1950s mining village on the coast of Northern England, a lively and curious girl forms a belief which has unforeseen consequences. The ten-year-old's adventures in spying with her best friend bring humor and reflect their innocence, yet there is a darker edge, both in the everyday perils that girls...
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In a nursing home, an old woman with reduced faculties has long-buried memories awakened by a novel set in the era of her childhood. In that story, in a 1950s mining village on the coast of Northern England, a lively and curious girl forms a belief which has unforeseen consequences. The ten-year-old's adventures in spying with her best friend bring humor and reflect their innocence, yet there is a darker edge, both in the everyday perils that girls can encounter and in the larger sphere of government espionage. Triggered by the book, the old woman's memories become vivid and detailed, and the two narratives intertwine revealing to her the secret of her past, just as the girl in the story realizes the truth. The Larcher was co-written by two "best" childhood friends who lived entire oceans and worlds apart for fifty years, but wrote the novel as if they had never been separated.