Eva Rice

From the author of ‘modern vintage classic’ The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets comes a feel-good nostalgic book-club novel about loss, hope and the powerful bond between sisters. It’s 1990 and the streets of Notting Hill in London are filled with colour, life and the pulse of music from around the world. But behind the front door at 51 St Quentin Avenue, nineteen-year-old February Kingdom is Not OK. Her parents were killed at the King’s Cross fire two years ago, and her twin sister – beautiful, vibrant, lovable Diana – died in a car crash just six months ago. Then, one evening in May, she finds an escaped canary called Yellow in her kitchen, and it sparks a glimmer of hope in her. When its owner, Theo who works in the pet shop down the road, gives Yellow to Feb to look after, and she starts to feel her way out of her own private darkness. This is a story about being a sister when your sister is gone, of loss of overcoming grief, and of the bliss of first love. It’s also about what happens when you start looking after something more important than you, and of the hope a little yellow bird can bring…

Set in 1950s London The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets centers around Penelope the wide- eyed daughter of a legendary beauty Talitha who lost her husband to the war. Penelope with her mother and brother struggles to maintain their vast and crumbling ancestral home while postwar London spins toward the next decade's cultural revolution. Penelope wants nothing more than to fall in love and when her new best friend Charlotte a free spirit in the young society set drags Penelope into London with all of its grand parties she sets in motion great change for them all. Charlotte's mysterious and attractive brother Harry uses Penelope to make his American ex-girlfriend jealous with unforeseen consequences and a dashing wealthy American movie producer arrives with what might be the key to Penelope's and her family's future happiness. Vibrant witty and filled with vivid historical detail The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets is an utterly unique debut novel about a time and place just slipping into history.