In 1942, Charlotte Gray a young Scottish woman, heads for Occupied France on a dual mission - officially, to run an apparently simple errand for a British special operations group and unofficially, to search for her lover, an English airman, Peter Gregory, missing in action.

In 1942, Charlotte Gray, a young scottish woman, goes to Occupied France on a dual mission - officially, to run an apparently simple errand for a British special operations group and unofficially, to search for her lover, an English airman who has gone missing in action. In the small town of Lavaurette, Sebastian Faulks presents a microcosm of France and its agony in 'the black years'. Here is the full range of collaboration, from the tacit to the enthusiastic, as well as examples of extraordinary courage and altruism. Through the local resistance chief Julien, Charlotte meets his father, a Jewish painter whose inspiration has failed him. In a series of shocking narrative climaxes in which the full extent of French collusion in the Nazi holocaust is delineated, Faulks brings the story to a resolution of redemptive love. In the delicacy of its writing, the intimacy of its characterisation and its powerful narrative scenes of harrowing public events, Charlotte Gray is a worthy successor to Birdsong.

Review
“With Charlotte Gray, Sebastian Faulks completes a trilogy of novels set in France... It is an impressive body of work... The most impressive novelist of his generation” Sunday Telegraph “It would take a mile-long essay to do justice to the many virtues of Sebastian Faulks's wonderful novel. This riveting account of a young woman's odyssey...deserves the highest praise... Masterful narrative and zestful pen-portraits. A beautiful near-masterpiece” — John Murray Independent on Sunday “Excruciatingly powerful” Daily Telegraph “Novelists are masters of the imagination. Faulks is beyound doubt a master” Financial Times “A brilliant, harrowing, powerful novel” Daily Mail

Sebastian Faulks was born and brought up in Newbury, Berkshire. He worked in journalism before starting to write books. He is best known for the French trilogy, The Girl at the Lion d'Or, Birdsong and Charlotte Gray (1989-1997) and is also the author of a triple biography, The Fatal Englishman (1996); a small book of literary parodies, Pistache (2006); and the novels Human Traces (2005) and Engleby (2007). He lives in London with his wife and their three children.