The Fourth Shore

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What to expect

The Fourth Shore: the sliver of fertile land along the Tripoli coast, the 'lost' territory Mussolini promised to reclaim for Italy. Which is how, in 1929, seventeen-year-old Liliana Cattaneo arrives there from Rome on a ship filled with eager colonists to join her brother and his new wife.

Liliana is sure she was on the brink of a great adventure, but what awaits her is not the Mediterranean idyll of cocktail parties, smart dances, dashing officers and romantic intrigues she had imagined. Instead she finds a world of persecution, violence, repression, corruption and deceptions both great and small.

A child of fascist Italy, blown about by the winds of fascism and Catholicism, Liliana becomes enmeshed in a dark liaison which has terrible consequences both for her and those she loves most.

The Fourth Shore is the engrossing and intensely poignant story of Liliana's journey from Rome to Tripoli to a north London suburb where, as plain Lily Jones, she begins to uncover a secret she has buried so deeply that even she is far from certain what it is.

Praise for Early One Morning by Virginia Baily:

'As gripping as any thriller...really, really good' Daily Mail

'A big, generous and absorbing piece of storytelling' Samantha Harvey, Guardian

'A real treat' Philip Hensher, Observer

'Wonderful' Tessa Hadley

Critics Review

Effortlessly enjoyable . . . an emotionally rewarding novel so succulent with detail that you can almost feel the Tripoli sand storms whipping across your face

Daily Mail

Fans of Victoria Hislop will love The Fourth Shore

Good Housekeeping

As gripping as any thriller . . . crammed with the sort of heart-stopping, heart-breaking scenes that brought a lump to the throat of even this jaded reviewer. Really, really good

Daily Mail, praise for Early One Morning

A moving assertion of the power of maternal love to overcome unimaginable obstacles

Sunday Times, praise for Early One Morning

Incredibly sure-footed, a big, generous and absorbing piece of storytelling, fearless, witty and full of flair . . .Even as it forces its characters to lose so much, it asserts itself against those losses with vehemence and hope

Samantha Harvey, Guardian, praise for Early One Morning

A real treat: a beautifully written account of the long consequences of war, set in a richly evoked Roman of the 1970s

Philip Hensher, Observer, praise for Early One Morning

Baily subtly tugs at your heartstrings and by the end of her novel you’re likely to be as desperate as the women in Daniele’s life to discover his fate

Daily Express, praise for Early One Morning

Heartbreaking . . . a powerful story of sacrifice, despair and ultimately redemption

Sunday Express, praise for Early One Morning

Wonderful . . . I was completely inside it from the first pages, just that delicious (rare) feeling of knowing you’re in safe hands, this writer isn’t going to make a mess of anything, or forfeit your trust or your belief. It managed to be so witty and dry and true . . . Vividly intelligent, gripping and moving and alive

Tessa Hadley, praise for Early One Morning

So effortlessly enjoyable she almost slips into the guilty pleasure category, yet she is also so accomplished there’s really nothing to feel guilty about . . . Baily sheds light on a neglected area of pre-war history in ways that are both politically astute and deeply satisfying

Daily Mail

A wholly enjoyable historical novel

Daily Mail

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