Oh dear! I must be living in another reality because Everyone Brave Is Forgiven did not work as well for me as it seems to have worked for others. Chris Cleave is a very skilled writer -- his prose is truly beautiful. But the story and characters in Everyone Brave Is Forgiven seemed flat and pastiche like compared to many other books I have read set in WWII. And it wasn't assisted by its length. The story focuses on a handful of characters in London starting at the beginning of the war. Mary is the wealthy naive daughter of a politician who wants to help with the war effort. Tom and Alistair are friends who are both taken by Mary. Zachary is a young black American that Mary takes under her wing. And the book focuses on the development of these characters as the war unfolds. There's nothing objectionable about the story, but to me the characters really lacked real depth -- which seems like a real flaw when writing about a topic like war. The dialogue read more like clever repartee than real or sincere interaction. And even when the characters were affected by dramatic events or the nasty consequences of war, their reactions felt unidimensional and predictable. In a foreword, Cleave mentions that he wrote this book to honour his grandfather who was stationed in Malta during the war and charged with watching over Churchill's son. Cleave admits that the story deviates significantly from his grandfather's story. Ironically, I think his grandfather's actual story may have been more engaging. Having said all of this, reading other GR reviews makes me feel like an outlier on this one. I suspect that there are many people who will like it far more than me -- I tend to be very hard on historical fiction. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an opportunity to read an advance copy.