Stranger in the House: Women’s Stories of Men Returning from the Second World War, by Julie Summers
The second world war is big business. Television, film, novels — whole industries have evolved to bring home to us the images of a ‘just’ war. Then there are the thousands of books, on politics, economics, Hitler and Churchill, Rommel and Monty. Too few of these, however, give us authentic voices, telling their own stories. Further, most end with VE or VJ Day, with happy crowds dancing down the Mall. But what came after? How did families reconnect after six years of separation, privation, horror and fear?
In Stranger in the House, Julie Summers weaves together the narratives of those on the home front, showing how the varied experiences of war created equally varied experiences of peace. How soldiers managed their return to civilian life was dependent on a vast number of factors.
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