The Girl Who Escaped: Utterly heartbreaking and emotional WW2 historical fiction

Italy, 1940. The girl sobs and rages as her father tells her the terrible news. "Italy is entering the war alongside Germany. Jews are to be arrested and sent to camps. We have to be ready."

As fascists march across the cobbled piazzas and past the towered buildings of her beloved home city, twenty-year-old Devora's worst fears come true. Along with her Jewish parents and twin little brothers they are torn away from everything they love and sent to an internment camp huddled in the mountains. Her father promises this war will not last long...

When they are offered a miraculous chance of escape by her childhood friend Luigi, who risks everything to smuggle vital information into the camp, the family clambers under barbed wire and races for the border. But Devora is forced to make a devastating choice between saving a stranger's life and joining her parents. As shots fire in the moonless night, the family is separated.

Haunted by the question of whether they are dead or alive, all Devora can do for their future is throw herself into helping Luigi in the Italian resistenza in the fight for liberty. But posing as a maid for a German commander to gather secret intelligence, Devora is sure she sees her friend one night, in a Nazi uniform...

Is Devora in more danger than ever? And will her family ever be reunited - or will the war tear them apart?

An absolutely devastating but ultimately uplifting historical novel about how love and hope can get us through the darkest times. Perfect for fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Rhys Bowen and Soraya M. Lane.

Read what everyone's saying about Angela Petch:

'Wow! Just Wow!... phenomenal... A novel I will never forget... Brilliant... 5 glorious stars for whisking me away to Italy... beautiful... I LOVED this novel!' Cindy L Spear,

'Magical... unforgettable... I was swept away... had me crying happy tears, I was hooked.' Goodreads reviewer,