The whalebone theatre - joanna quinn

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER - A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK - A transporting, irresistible debut novel that takes its heroine, Cristabel Seagrave, from a theatre made of whalebones to covert operations during World War II--a story of love, family, bravery, lost innocence, and self-transformation.

Absolute aces.

Quinns imagination and adventuresome spirit are a pleasure to behold.

-- The New York Times Utterly heartbreaking and joyous.

--Jo Baker, author of Longbourn One blustery night in 1928, a whale washes up on the shores of the English Channel.

By law, it belongs to the King, but twelve-year-old orphan Cristabel Seagrave has other plans.

She and the rest of the household--her sister, Flossie; her brother, Digby, long-awaited heir to Chilcombe manor; Maudie Kitcat, kitchen maid; Taras, visiting artist--build a theatre from the beasts skeletal rib cage.

Within the Whalebone Theatre, Cristabel can escape her feckless stepparents and brisk governesses, and her imagination comes to life.

As Cristabel grows into a headstrong young woman, World War II rears its head.

She and Digby become British secret agents on separate missions in Nazi-occupied France--a more dangerous kind of playacting, it turns out, and one that threatens to tear the family apart.