Secrets of a Charmed Life

Secrets of a Charmed Life

by Susan Meissner

386 pages· 2015· ISBN 9780451419927

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About
She stood at a crossroads, half-aware that her choice would send her down a path from which there could be no turning back. But instead of two choices, she saw only one—because it was all she really wanted to see…

Current day, Oxford, England. Young American scholar Kendra Van Zant, eager to pursue her vision of a perfect life, interviews Isabel McFarland just when the elderly woman is ready to give up secrets about the war that she has kept for decades...beginning with who she really is. What Kendra receives from Isabel is both a gift and a burden--one that will test her convictions and her heart.

1940s, England. As Hitler wages an unprecedented war against London’s civilian population, one million children are evacuated to foster homes in the rural countryside. But even as fifteen-year-old Emmy Downtree and her much younger sister Julia find refuge in a charming Cotswold cottage, Emmy’s burning ambition to return to the city and apprentice with a fashion designer pits her against Julia’s profound need for her sister’s presence. Acting at cross purposes just as the Luftwaffe rains down its terrible destruction, the sisters are cruelly separated, and their lives are transformed…

Discussion questions for Secrets of a Charmed Life

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  1. 1

    How does the framing device of Kendra interviewing Isabel in present-day Oxford affect your emotional connection to the historical events of the 1940s?

  2. 2

    Emmy and Julia are placed in an impossible situation where Emmy’s personal ambition clashes with her duty as an older sister; how do you balance personal ambition with familial responsibility in your own life?

  3. 3

    The evacuation of a million children from London is a massive historical trauma that deeply impacted British society; how well do you think the novel captures the psychological toll of war on civilians, particularly the young?

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