It’s the third day of the blog tour for We’ve Come to Take You Home! I was so excited to read this book because the premise sounded fascinating. I remember a few weeks ago when Sarah mentioned it to me and I jumped at the chance of reading it. Here’s a little info about the novel and author, Susan Gandar, as well as some of my own thoughts on We’ve Come to Take You Home.
The Novel
Samantha Foster and Jessica Brown are destined to meet. One lives in the twentieth century, the other in the twenty-first century
April 1916 and thousands of men have left home to fight in the war to end all wars. Jessica Brown’s father is about to be one of those men. A year later, he is still alive but Jess has to steal to keep her family from starving. And then a telegram arrives – her father has been killed in action.
Four generations later, Sam Foster’s father is admitted to a hospital’s intensive care unit with a suspected brain haemorrhage. A nurse asks if she would like to take her father’s hand. Sam refuses. All she wants is to get out of this place, stuck between the world of the living and the world of the dead, a place with no hope and no future, as quickly as possible.
As Sam’s father’s condition worsens, her dreams become more frequent – and more frightening. She realises that what she is experiencing is not a dream, but someone else’s living nightmare…
We’ve Come to Take You Home is an emotionally-charged story of a friendship forged 100 years apart.
The Author
A lot of Susan Gandar’s childhood was spent on film sets. Her father was a film production designer, who had worked on films such as 
‘Lawrence of Arabia’ and ‘The Great Gatsby’.
She began working in television as a script editor and story consultant, helping out on ‘Casualty’. Susan became known for going after the more ‘difficult’ stories at the same time successfully racking up viewing figures from 7 to 14 million. She developed various projects for the BBC and the independent sector.
Her debut novel, ‘We’ve Come to Take You Home’, is set in the present and in 1918. It is a crossover aimed at the adult and young adult women’s popular fiction market. It was published on 28th March by Matador.
My Thoughts
The differing perspectives in this novel is one of my favourite aspects of it. I love that the two girls are almost a century apart and live such contrasting lives on the surface, however so many parallels can be made. Both of the girl’s stories are beautifully emotional. The protagonists, Sam and Jessica, are easy to relate to and offer an open and honest perspective on their lives.
As I said at the start of this post, I was excited by the premise of the novel and thankfully, the story kept me interested! Sam’s visions of the past are rather jarring which is great because you feel how she does in the book. She is disorientated and this feeling is translated really well with the writing.
This is a fascinating premise and I would recommend it, especially if (like me) you enjoying reading fiction from the World Wars.
You can buy the book on Amazon UK, Amazon US and Troubador!
Even more exciting, you can enter this international giveaway for a chance of getting a signed copy of the novel!
Check out Susan on twitter and on her website!
The Little Contemporary Corner 