“Based on true events, The Long Flight Home has everything I love in a novel-the sense of discovery, the epic drama of a life-or-death situation, and the soaring sense of hope gained from the depths of despair.
Yet Duchess’s devotion and her singular sense of duty will become an unexpected lifeline, relaying messages between Susan and Ollie as war rages on-and proving, at last, that hope is never truly lost. When Ollie’s plane is downed behind enemy lines, both know how remote the chances of reunion must be. The friendship between Ollie and Susan deepens as the mission date draws near. Those that do make the journey home to England can convey crucial information on German troop movements-and help reclaim the skies from the Luftwaffe. Codenamed Source Columba, the mission aims to air-drop hundreds of homing pigeons in German-occupied France. His quest brings him to Epping and to the National Pigeon Service, where Susan is involved in a new, covert assignment. Thousands of miles away in Buxton, Maine, a young crop-duster pilot named Ollie Evans has decided to travel to Britain to join the Royal Air Force. Hatched from an egg that Susan incubated in a bowl under her grandfather’s desk lamp, Duchess shares a special bond with Susan and an unusual curiosity about the human world. All her birds are extraordinary to Susan-loyal, intelligent, beautiful-but none more so than Duchess. After losing her parents to influenza as a child, Susan found comfort in raising homing pigeons with Bertie. Enemy fighter planes blacken the sky around the Epping Forest home of Susan Shepherd and her grandfather, Bertie. It is September 1940-a year into the war-and as German bombs fall on Britain, fears grow of an impending invasion. Inspired by fascinating, true, yet little-known events during World War II, The Long Flight Home is a testament to the power of courage in our darkest hours-a moving, masterfully written story of love and sacrifice. Rhys Bowen, New York Timesbestselling author of In Farleigh Field, The Tuscan Childand the Royal Spyness novels “Tense, heartwarming and life affirming, The Long Flight Home gives a fresh slant on heroism in WWII.”
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