When We Were Young & Brave: A Novel

Summary

"Gaynor's story of courage and
strength will make you believe in the heroic spirit in each of us." —Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours

The New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Came Home sets her unforgettable new novel in China during
WWII, inspired by true events surrounding the Japanese Army’s internment of
teachers and children from a British-run missionary school.

Their motto was to be prepared, but nothing could prepare them for war.

China,
December 1941. Having left an unhappy
life in England for a teaching post at a missionary school in northern China, Elspeth
Kent is now anxious to return home to help the war effort. But as she prepares
to leave China, a terrible twist of fate determines a different path for Elspeth,
and those in her charge.

Ten-year-old Nancy Plummer has
always felt safe at Chefoo School,
protected by her British status. But when Japan declares war on Britain and America, Japanese
forces take control of the school and the
security and
comforts Nancy and her friends are used to are replaced by privation, uncertainty and
fear. Now the enemy, and separated from their parents, the children look to their teachers – to Miss
Kent and her new Girl Guide patrol especially – to provide a sense of unity and
safety.

Faced
with the relentless challenges of oppression, the school community must rely on their courage, faith and
friendships as they pray for liberation – but worse is to come when they are
sent to a distant internment camp where even greater uncertainty and danger
await …

Inspired by true
events, When We Were Young and Brave is an unforgettable novel about impossible choices and
unimaginable hardship, and the life-changing bonds formed between a young girl
and her teacher in a remote corner of a terrible war.