Armed with a slew of requests, Harry is in France to provide those grave photos but he’s also trying to find his brother Francis. In most cases, they have the details of when and how they died, they just want to see their loved one’s final resting place, as they are generally unable or unwilling to travel there themselves.

Harry is a photographer who works for a newspaper who accepts requests from families to take photos of the graves of their loved ones. Showing it to Francis’ brother Harry, she begs Harry to find Francis for her, to take a photo of his grave. It’s posted from somewhere in France, there’s no accompanying letter, there’s no indication of who has sent it. It’s several years after the end of the First World War and almost four since her husband was reported missing, believed dead when Edie receives a photograph of Francis in the mail. Hired by grieving families to photograph gravesites, as he travels through battle-scarred France gathering news for British wives and mothers, Harry also searches for evidence of his brother.Īnd as Harry and Edie’s paths converge, they get closer to a startling truth.Īn incredibly moving account of an often-forgotten moment in history, The Poppy Wife tells the story of the thousands of soldiers who were lost amid the chaos and ruins, and the even greater number of men and women desperate to find them again. Both brothers shared a love of photography and it is that which brings Harry back to the Western Front. He too longs for Francis to be alive, so they can forgive each other for the last things they ever said. Harry, Francis’s brother, fought alongside him. He is considered ‘missing in action’, but when Edie receives a mysterious photograph taken by Francis in the post, hope flares. While many survivors of the Great War have been reunited with their loved ones, Edie’s husband Francis has not come home. Families are desperately trying to piece together the fragments of their broken lives. Until she knows her husband’s fate, she cannot decide her own…Īn epic debut novel of forbidden love, loss, and the shattered hearts left behind in the wake of World War I.ġ921.

The poppy wife