The Walls Came Down

Description

The Walls Came Down

by Ewa Dodd

• Aurora Metro Books publishing The Walls Came Down, Ewa Dodd’s debut novel in September 2017.
• Shortlisted for the 4th Virginia Prize for Fiction – a biennial fiction prize for women writing in English.
• A poignant historical novel about loss and self-discovery told with compassion and unflinching honesty.
• Set in 1988 and 2010, and in three countries: Poland, Britain and the US.
• 1988 saw a massive wave of workers’ strikes break out across Poland, which helped pave the way for the collapse of Communism across Eastern Europe over the next few years.
• Incorporates family reminiscences, as both Ewa Dodd’s parents were part of the Solidarity movement in 1980s Poland.

Story

The Walls Came Down A young boy goes missing during a workers’ strike in 1980s Communist Poland, unravelling a chain of events which will touch people across decades and continents.

Twenty years later and Joanna, a young journalist in Warsaw, is still looking for her brother. Matty, a high-flying London city financier is struggling with relationship problems and unexplained panic attacks. And in Chicago, an old man is slowly dying in a nursing home, losing his battle with liver cancer.

What connects them? As the mystery begins to unravel, the world of the three protagonists is turned upside down. But can they find each other before time runs out?

A poignant historical novel about loss and self-discovery told with compassion and unflinching honesty.

Reviews

“Wow what a book! A powerful and moving story of childhood loss and identity. This stunning debut by Ewa Dodd grips you straight away with its fully formed characters who you grow to really care for as the story progresses. The author also handles very effectively the narrative moving back and forth from Communist Poland to the present day… It is difficult to put down and moves along at just the right pace to keep the tension, whilst also satisfying the reader with sufficient detail. I highly recommend this for any reader who is looking for a moving story of family and belonging as well as a sense of recent Polish history. The best book I’ve read this year so far!” Manchester Military History Society

“Fusing history with the contemporary, this missing child tale is immensely moving, heart wrenching even. It’s a gripping story of love and determination, with subtle political undertones that form the catalyst for the events that follow… ” The Nudge

“The Walls Came Down is a book that I found almost impossible to put down once I started reading, the characters and the plot became so very real to me and I found that I desperately didn’t want to part with them, not even to refresh the cuppa that had been forgotten about and gone cold.” The Quiet Knitter

“Thoughtfully written and profoundly affecting, the story captured my imagination from the very beginning. With delicate sensitivity, the author brings a wealth of cultural understanding… ” Jaffa Reads Too

“The Walls Came Down is the stunning debut novel from Ewa Dodd… Expertly written, the characters are well rounded… The poignancy of the story is extremely powerful, and left me with a warm feeling in my heart. Definitely a page turner.” White Shadow in a Basement

“The Walls Came Down is a page-turner; an engaging and fast-paced story of a child disappearance that spans countries, systems and human frailties… ” Katarzyna Zechenter, a poet, the author of In the Shadow of the Tree and a lecturer at UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies

“The Walls Came Down is a tense and moving tale of love and loss that grips the reader from start to finish. Shifting between contemporary London and Chicago and the Solidarity strikes of 1988, this compelling story shows us how a momentary act of selfishness can ruin several lives. ” Fiona Rintoul, journalist and author of the prize-winning The Leipzig Affair

About the author

Ewa Dodd has been writing since she was young – starting small with short self-illustrated books for children. More recently, she has delved into novel-writing, and is particularly interested in literature based in Poland, where her family are from. The Walls Came Down is her first published novel, for which she was shortlisted for the Virginia Prize for Fiction.