The Walls Came Down

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Pub Date 28 Feb 2018 | Archive Date 15 Aug 2018

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Description

A boy goes missing during a workers’ strike in 1980s Communist Poland. A journalist in Warsaw is looking for her brother, who’s been missing for twenty years. A London financier is struggling with panic attacks. In Chicago, an old man is dying in a nursing home.

What connects them? As the mystery unravels, the protagonists’ worlds are turned upside down.

A boy goes missing during a workers’ strike in 1980s Communist Poland. A journalist in Warsaw is looking for her brother, who’s been missing for twenty years. A London financier is struggling with...


Advance Praise

"Fusing history with the contemporary, this missing child tale is immensely moving, heart wrenching even. It’s a gripping story of love and determination, with subtle political undertones that form the catalyst for the events that follow... It’s one thing to have an engrossing premise but quite another to execute it as competently as Ewa Dodd has done." - The Nudge

"The Walls Came Down is a book that I found almost impossible to put down once I started reading, the characters and the plot became so very real to me and I found that I desperately didn’t want to part with them, not even to refresh the cuppa that had been forgotten about and gone cold." - The Quiet Knitter

"Thoughtfully written and profoundly affecting, the story captured my imagination from the very beginning. With delicate sensitivity, the author brings a wealth of cultural understanding... Everything feels completely authentic... Moving seamlessly between three distinct locations, Poland, London and Chicago, the three main characters allow us a glimpse into each of their lives and reveal, ever so slowly, the secrets which they have carried within them for such a long time." - Jaffa Reads Too

"The Walls Came Down is the stunning debut novel from Ewa Dodd... Expertly written, the characters are well rounded... The poignancy of the story is extremely powerful, and left me with a warm feeling in my heart. Definitely a page turner." - White Shadow in a Basement

"The Walls Came Down  is a page-turner; an engaging and fast-paced story of a child disappearance that spans countries, systems and human frailties… Well written, The Walls Came Down is a gripping debut novel that brings another author to the excellent company of Polish-English writers such as Anya Lipska and Anna Taborska dark horror storytelling.”
Katarzyna Zechenter, a poet, the author of In the Shadow of the Tree and a lecturer at UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies.

“The Walls Came Down is a tense and moving tale of love and loss that grips the reader from start to finish. Shifting between contemporary London and Chicago and the Solidarity strikes of 1988, this compelling story shows us how a momentary act of selfishness can ruin several lives. It is also a reminder that the collapse of communism started not in Germany or in the Soviet Union but in the shipyards and mines of Poland, where the workers faced down a dictatorship that claimed to rule in their name, just as the people of Leipzig later would in 1989.”
Fiona Rintoul, journalist and author of the prize-winning The Leipzig Affair

"Fusing history with the contemporary, this missing child tale is immensely moving, heart wrenching even. It’s a gripping story of love and determination, with subtle political undertones that form...


Marketing Plan

See video trailer here:

https://vimeo.com/260459861

Author talk at Streatham Tate Library, February 2018

Book launch at Ink@84 Bookshop in Highbury, London

Rights available at London Book Fair stand 4f40 - see Cheryl Robson, publisher April 10-12th

Author talk at UCL date tbc

Blog tour contact marketing@aurorametro.com to take part



See video trailer here:

https://vimeo.com/260459861

Author talk at Streatham Tate Library, February 2018

Book launch at Ink@84 Bookshop in Highbury, London

Rights available at London Book Fair stand 4f40...


Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9781911501152
PRICE US$20.95 (USD)
PAGES 224

Average rating from 7 members


Featured Reviews

I was immediately attracted by the cover of this book and the summary. Thanks to Netgalley for allowing me to read this book.

This book tells the story of a boy who disappeared during a workers' strike in the 80s, a journalist looking for his brother for quite some time, a financier in London suffers from anxiety attacks and during that time in Chicago a man in a retirement home is about to die. Why are these people related?

A captivating, moving and engaging story, I loved the writing style, the fluidity of the chapters. I recommend it.

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The writer did an amazing job of connecting three very different characters from different parts of the world via their struggles as they deal with the emotions of something or someone missing from their lives. The writing was engrossing and kept me invested in all 3 characters' journeys.

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This was meant to be a relaxing vacation from a dense science book and absolutely did the trick. Women’s fiction in the description almost scared me off, but this was perfectly estrogen balanced, actually. In fact, only one out of three narrative threads is female. And the sum of these threads tells a story of a family, torn apart by tragic circumstances and selfish choices. Set across three locations on two continents, the story starts with a young boy being kidnapped during the Solidarity strikes in 1988 just as Communism is about to finally surrender to Democracy in Eastern Europe. Needless to say that location makes for the most interesting part of the book and technically nearly qualifies for international reading. Fast forward 22 years to a young man trying to find his identity. Enter all sorts of dramatic ramifications. Not quite a mystery, since the reader pretty much knows what’s going on most of the time or even the entire time, more of a family drama. The overall gentleness of tone and the lachrymose ending kinda make me think of Lifetime movie, but a really well done one. There is no real evil at play here, no sinister plots (in fact likeability all around pretty much) just individual mistakes, sad realities of life. But then it sort of all works out, just to denote that difference between fiction and reality, although not so ludicrously happy as to severely annoy a worldweary reader. Never heard of the author, but she did a good job, aside from a few minor slips into Britishisms when outside of the zone. Also it really should have been titled All That Remains. Pleasant sort of a book, nice, almost cozy in a way…without the usual detractors such fiction tends to possess, mainly inanity. And such a quick read too. Thanks Netgalley.

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Thank you NetGalley and Aurora Metro Books for the eARC.
This book had me in tears, which is highly unusual. It's the best one I've read this year so far...beautiful.
We move seamlessly from Warsaw to London and Chicago, where Joanne, Marty and Tom are all driven by fear, guilt and regret. Their lives are missing someone, something. It takes them through some dark times as they try to find their way to fill the gaping holes in their being, but the journey is crafted so poignantly, so beautifully that you cannot put the book down. As you read, you know where the stories are going to end, but the getting there is what makes the experience so moving and heartfelt. Outstanding, loved it and can't recommend it highly enough. 5+ stars!

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