Winter Swallows

Every year as the swallows of the air flew south hundreds of poor children left their homes and walked to Paris to work as chimney sweeps. They were called the Winter Swallows. In 1895 young Henri Moreau and Sylvie Audache leave home and walk to Paris to work for disreputable sweep master Monsieur Garcia. Life is gruelling and dangerous but improves with the help of the enigmatic peddler of peculiar merchandise, Philippe Marquand. Together Henri and Sylvie take the first steps to realise their dreams until fate plays a series of cruel tricks fracturing their lives. In 2016 Eliza Findlay goes reluctantly on holiday to France with her father and his new family. In a dilapidated barn she discovers a secret shrine, a curious engraving and a locket containing a strand of red gold hair. Determined to find out who they belonged to Eliza painstakingly uncovers the secrets of the past. She learns the fascinating story of Henri Moreau and Sylvie Audache and how their lives have startling consequences for those that follow. 'Eliza felt strangely calm standing among the dead and she wondered if sometimes time wound backwards, and the lives of the past merged with those who were living as if the line between them was frayed.’


Genre: Young Adult Fiction