Helen Dunmore was on my radar but not my TBR until I read The Railway Children and FictionFan commented that there was a version of that story that focused on the parents. (Her review can be found here.)
Simon Callington is a low level office worker for the Admiralty in London during the Cold War. He lives a simple, comfortable life with his wife and three children. But when his old friend and colleague, Giles Hollaway breaks his leg, he calls in a favour and Simon finds himself in possession of a top secret file that never should have left the office. When Simon’s wife Lily discovers the file’s presence, she buries it in their back garden. Before long, Simon is arrested and, left on her own with three young children, Lily is forced to leave London and try to survive in a country cottage.
The bare bones of the story is clearly inspired by The Railway Children, which is honestly a great starting premise for a novel. As a children’s novel, it leaves a lot of unanswered questions around what the father is accused of and how he secures his freedom in the end. Dunmore makes the wise decision to move the timeline of the story up into the post-war period in London. The Cold War and the aftermath of a world war lets the reader immediately understand the atmosphere in which these men are operating. Dunmore also adds depth to the story with the character of Lily, a woman who came to England as a child, a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany. Lily has put her past behind her, but she carries that young trauma and the knowledge that life can completely change at any moment.f
The characterization is truly excellent throughout the novel. In turn, we follow along closely both Simon and Lily, as well as Holloway, the aging spy who has brought Simon into this mess. Dunmore gives each one depth and complexity. They each have their strengths and weaknesses that both help and harm them throughout. Simon and Lily, both the odd one out as children, have found safety and security in the family life they have built together and I thought Dunmore’s portrayal of the fracturing of that was particularly well done. Holloway could have been a caricature of a drunken, aging spy but Dunmore writes him with sympathy and pathos and we see just how much both men have to lose in this case.
Karissa Reads Books 
Glad you enjoyed it! Not having read The Railway Children I hadn’t really noticed just what a change she had made in the time period for the novel, but I felt it worked well to tie it in with that Cambridge spy era. And I agree – her characterisation was excellent.
It sounds like the movie changed the time period too and I think both make a lot more sense. Setting it in the Cambridge spy era, the reader automatically understands so much of what’s at stake and the context in which these characters are operating. I spent a lot of The Railway Children trying to figure out who their father would even be spying for. Of course, it’s not a spy story so it’s secondary to the plot but still!
I haven’t read either of these books (I haven’t even heard of the Railway children!) but I love this idea of the author returning to these characters and writing from different perspectives. I’m reading something similar right now – Love You Bunny by Mona Awad. I imagine this to be a really rewarding but challenging experience for a writer; writing one story, and then having to switch perspectives entirely for a new book.
It’s a fun idea especially with this one because The Railway Children leaves so many unanswered questions! I didn’t love Bunny – is We Love You Bunny similar in tone or quite different?
I’ve never read Bunny so I can’t speak to that, but We Love You Bunny is quite bizarre! Gory, sort of literary horror in a way?
That sounds like Bunny!
I can’t believe this is a children’s novel. It sounds like the plot of a John Carre book. I mean, if mom is burying a folder in the backyard, something bad happened, and is it bad enough that little children readers shouldn’t know about it?
Oh no, this isn’t for children at all! It’s much more like a spy story but not for a child audience. It’s not even an unofficial retelling as the characters all have different names. But it takes the premise of The Railway Children and tells a story of a family in that circumstance but from an adult perspective.
I really like this idea! I read Kate Saunders’ Five Children on the Western Front several years ago, which was written as an adult sequel to Five Children and It. It sounds like this is a somewhat similar premise, although it’s not a retelling or sequel. I will look this up at the library!
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