Never Anyone but You

By: Rupert Thomson

Narrated by: Kate Reading

The true story of a love affair between two extraordinary women becomes a literary tour de force in this novel that recreates the surrealist movement in Paris and the horrors of the two world wars with a singular incandescence and intimacy

In the years preceding World War I, two young women meet, by chance, in a provincial town in France. Suzanne Malherbe, a shy 17-year-old with a talent for drawing, is completely entranced by the brilliant but troubled Lucie Schwob, who comes from a family of wealthy Jewish intellectuals. They embark on a clandestine love affair, terrified they will be discovered, but then, in an astonishing twist of fate, the mother of one marries the father of the other. As "sisters" they are finally free of suspicion, and, hungry for a more stimulating milieu, they move to Paris at a moment when art, literature, and politics blend in an explosive cocktail.

Having reinvented themselves as Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, they move in the most glamorous social circles, meeting everyone from Hemingway and Dali to Andre Breton, and produce provocative photographs that still seem avant-garde today. In the 1930s, with the rise of anti-Semitism and threat of fascism, they leave Paris for Jersey, and it is on this idyllic island that they confront their destiny, creating a campaign of propaganda against Hitler's occupying forces that will put their lives in jeopardy.

Brilliantly imagined, profoundly thought-provoking, and ultimately heartbreaking, Never Anyone but You infuses life into a forgotten history as only great literature can.

An Elite Daily Pick for 2018 book release that'll make hearing more your New Year's resolution.

©2018 Rupert Thomson (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

One of my favorites.

I loved this story and it's walk through history. The narration really gave it life.

Revised review

I ultimately finished this book. The narration was perfect for this content. I did find it more interesting as it went on; however I admit to skipping a few chapters. I would like to know more about the back story, i.e., the characters upon whom the book was based. Guess that is my quibble with most historical fiction. What is truth and what is in the author‘s imagination??

Never finished

Not what I thought it was going to be. I stopped after chapter 5. Unfinished for now.

The most boring story I’ve ever suffered through

Ugh. Beyond boring. And yet arrogant. Skip. Avoid. Truly. Don’t do it. You are warned.