Amburgo, 1946. La città, assegnata agli inglesi dopo la spartizione fatta dagli Alleati della Germania sconfitta, è devastata come le vite di chi la abita: vinti e vincitori. È in questa notte buia dell'anima che il colonnello inglese Lewis Morgan, incaricato di gestire la ricostruzione di questa città senza speranza, si trova costretto, suo malgrado, a requisire al legittimo proprietario, l'architetto tedesco Stefan Lubert, una splendida villa sul fiume Elba. Nonostante la diffidenza di sua moglie Rachael, Lewis offre a Lubert e Frieda, la figlia adolescente, la possibilità di rimanere a vivere nella villa. Le due famiglie per quanto non condividano quasi nulla, sono però accomunate dallo stesso dolore causato dalla guerra: Lewis e Rachael hanno perso il figlio maggiore per una bomba nemica, mentre Stefan, per la stessa ragione, ha perso sua moglie Claudia. I destini delle due famiglie iniziano a intrecciarsi in un susseguirsi di emozioni e colpi di scena: solo affrontando le conseguenze del dolore, infatti, la notte delle loro vite potrà cedere il passo a una nuova alba.

THE KILLING OF BUTTERFLY JOE - BROOK RHIDIAN - Pan

1946, post-World War II Hamburg. While thousands wander the rubble, lost and homeless, Colonel Lewis Morgan, charged with overseeing the rebuilding of this devastated city and the denazification of its defeated people, is stationed in a grand house on the River Elbe. He is awaiting the arrival of his wife, Rachael—still grieving for their eldest son—and their only surviving son, Edmund. But rather than force the owners of the house, a German widower and his rebellious daughter, out onto the streets, Lewis insists that the two families live together. In this charged atmosphere, both parents and children will be forced to confront their true selves as enmity and grief give way to passion and betrayal, to their deepest desires, their fiercest loyalties, and the transforming power of forgiveness.

This courageous new novel from award-winning author Rhidian Brook tells an emotionally riveting story of two families, one house, and love grown from hate.

From the Hardcover edition.

More than eyes can see is an account of a-nine-month journey made by the author and his family into some of the world's HIV/AIDS epicentres. Sent by the Salvation Army to bear witness to the work they were doing in response to the pandemic, Rhidian Brook, his wife and two children, follow a trail of devastation through communities still shattered and being broken by this disease: truck-stop sex-workers in Kenya, victims of rape in Rwanda, child-headed families in Soweto, children of prostitutes in India, farmers who sold blood for money in China. It is a remarkable journey among the infected and the affected through a world that, despite seeming on the brink of collapse, is being held together, not by power, politics, guns and money; but by small acts of kindness performed by unsung people choosing to live in hope.