A secret life

It is 1974 in Communist Bulgaria. Yana, a young woman living there, realises that she can't go on living in the shadow of fear and oppression. She must escape somehow. Crossing the closed borders to the free world takes a feat of courage and imagination and when she finally reaches Britain, it is all she dreamt it would be. She begins to discover what liberty really means and falls in love with Daniel, an artist who seems to understand the sadness she carries for her lost homeland. But Yana has not escaped her homeland after all; a deed she promised to carry out before she left holds her hostage to the past. She must make a choice: betray the man she loves or endanger the lives of the family she left behind. "Bancheva writes with authority about life under communist rule; the bargains people made to escape it and a regime that's grip on its citizenry extended beyond its national borders." Susan Beale, author of the Costa nominated The Good Guy "This is a wonderful novel. M. Bancheva has done an excellent job in shaping this expansive and ambitious story." Tricia Wastvedt author of The River and The German Boy.