Lucy

by Alan Kennedy

Lucy is a painter. She has fame, money and reputation. She also has Oscar. At least, he has always been there. One fine day, she will do something about that. It was, as she says, hardly a love affair, more a kind of marriage. Perhaps, even war-torn France is safe enough on the Oscar front. But Lucy is deceiving herself. Set before and after the second world war in London, Edinburgh, Saint-Valery-sur-Somme, Dundee and a remote village in war-time France, two painters struggle to come to terms with the casual brutality of war. A love story. Alan Kennedy’s fourth novel - a masterly account of love, loss and reconciliation. “A haunting and captivating love story set largely in occupied France in WWII, Lucy has both a deceptively simple narrative style and a skilfully articulated plot which holds the reader from start to finish. At its heart is the exploration of the young artist’s creative imagination as she struggles to come to terms with the banal horrors of war and her own engulfing emotions.” Deborah Swallow, Märit Rausing Director, Courtauld Institute of Art. “Lucy hooked me from page one - a precocious, headstrong yet ironical, young artist who comes to learn that the firestorms of WWII would spare neither the wise nor the foolish. Alan Kennedy's lyrically-told tale of love and war entertains as it transcends its genres.” Umberto Tosi, author of “Ophelia Rising”. “A lovely sense of place, as seen through a painter's eyes ... a thoughtful picture of the alienation of the artist … a teasing, multi-layered narrative. What more could you want? I was utterly absorbed.” The Bookbag

202 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 8, 2014

About the author

Alan Kennedy lives near Marciac in the South West of France, home to a huge annual jazz festival. His first three novels appeal to readers from the age of seven to seventy. They examine the lives of a group of children "trapped in amber" over a period of a few golden months. His novel "Lucy" is a love story set in World War II France. The sequel, "A Time to Tell Lies", also set during World War II, is a fictional treatment charting the human cost of two of the most significant WW2 disinformation projects.

Alan Kennedy has also written the biography of the psychologist Oscar Oeser, entitled "Oscar & Lucy." Oeser worked in Germany with Hilter's favourite psychologist, studied at Cambridge alongside some notorious spies, headed Hut 6 at Bletchley Park, and organised a raid on Hiltler's Berghof. Apart from that, his life was tranquil.

Further information about Alan Kennedy's books is available on the Lasserrade Press website: www.lasserradepress.com