The book
Set immediately after the end of WWII, Freya explores the lives and friendship of two British females at a time where gender roles were changing in England.
It begins on May 8th, 1945. The streets of London are alive with VE-Day celebrations. In the crowd, twenty-year-old Freya Wyley meets eighteen-year-old Nancy Holdaway. Freya's acerbic wit and free-wheeling politics complement Nancy's gentle, less self-confident nature, and what begins on that eventful day in history is the story of a devoted and competitive friendship that spans two decades.
This heralded novel follows the irrepressible lives of these young women. As Freya chooses journalism and Nancy realizes her ambitions as a novelist, their friendship explores the nuances of sexual, emotional and professional rivalries. They are not immune to the sting of betrayal and the tenderness of reconciliation.
Beneath the relentless thrum of changing times are the eternal battles fought by women in pursuit of independence and the search for love. Stretching from the war haunted halls of Oxford and the Nuremburg trials to the cultural transformations of the early 1960s, Freya presents the portraits of extraordinary women taking arms against a sea of political and personal tumult. Anthony Quinn has created an immersive story of female friendship and the self-discoveries that reveal the mysteries of the human heart.
The author
Anthony Quinn
Anthony Quinn is a British film critic and the author of four previous books including The Streets (short-listed for the 2013 Walter Scott Prize) and Curtain Call, a bestseller and pick for the Waterstones Book Club.
Press
- Dec 8 2017
I Am the Kind of Woman I Would Run From
— The New York Times Book Review - Dec 4 2017
Briefly Noted
— The New Yorker - Dec 1 2017
Portrait of the artists as young women
— The Boston Globe - Nov 12 2017
Approval Matrix
— New York magazine - Nov 7 2017
7 Books You Need to Read this November
— Vulture - Nov 1 2017
14 Books to Read in November
— Entertainment Weekly