Transgression - by James W Nichol (Paperback)

About the Book

A tale of love and war, Transgression by James W. Nichol is part romance, part mystery, and part riveting historical novel set during World War Two in Europe and in North America in the years directly following the terrible conflict. Nichol--winner of the Arthur Ellis Award and shortlisted for the UK's Gold Dagger Award for his debut novel Midnight Cab--tells the haunting story of a young French woman undone by love during the Nazi occupation of her country and branded a "horizontal collaborator" after its liberation. Beautifully written and unforgettable, Transgression is a novel about secrets and survival and the high price that must be paid for passion.

Book Synopsis

A tale of love and war, Transgression by James W. Nichol is part romance, part mystery, and part riveting historical novel set during World War Two in Europe and in North America in the years directly following the terrible conflict. Nichol--winner of the Arthur Ellis Award and shortlisted for the UK's Gold Dagger Award for his debut novel Midnight Cab--tells the haunting story of a young French woman undone by love during the Nazi occupation of her country and branded a "horizontal collaborator" after its liberation. Beautifully written and unforgettable, Transgression is a novel about secrets and survival and the high price that must be paid for passion.

From the Back Cover

How can love survive a brutal time?

In 1946 in North America, a child makes a grisly find in a deserted field--a discovery that opens a shuttered window on a secret dating back to the beginning of the turbulent decade.

In 1941 in occupied France, Adele Georges's fruitless attempts to learn the whereabouts of her father, captured by the Nazis, lead her to a lonely young German soldier far from home. A spark between them becomes a fire--and a dangerous love affair blooms across enemy lines, dooming Adele to a grim postwar existence as a despised outcast, one of the infamous "horizontal collaborators." Ostracized, tortured, tormented, she chooses a desperate escape, accompanying a war-damaged yet optimistic Allied soldier across an ocean to a new land. But there is no refuge from the past, as Adele's broken heart and shameful secret drive her deeper into despair...and toward a shocking outcome.

Part mystery and part love story--an unforgettable and beautifully written novel of secrets, passions, and consequences--Transgression is an exceptional work of power and strange beauty.

Review Quotes

"...the vivid prose, harrowing plot and the defiant Adele will keep readers invested in this love story-cum-murder mystery until the very last page." -- Publishers Weekly