Set against the backdrop of real, world-changing events, these are the
stories that are forgotten in the history books.


 


The year is 1968 and the world is changing forever. During the month
of May, students are rioting and workers are striking across the globe, civil
rights are being fought and died for, nuclear bombs are being tested, there are
major conflicts on every continent, and war is raging in Vietnam. Against this
volatile background, three women strive to keep everything together.


 


Rose must keep her dignity and compassion as a West
Indian nurse in East London. Amalia must keep hoping that her son can escape their seedy
life in Lisbon. And Mrs Johnson in Washington DC must keep
writing to her son in Vietnam. She has no-one else to talk to. Three different
women, three different countries, but all striving to survive - a courageous
attitude that everybody can relate to.


 


Although Sleeping
Through War is a work of fiction, this somewhat hidden history attempts
to humanise a few weeks in time that were so stuffed with monumental events
that it’s easy to forget the people involved. The author was a child in 1968
and lived in London and Lisbon during the 1960s. She met women like these and
didn’t want their voices to go unheard into the future. Readers of both history
and literary fiction will enjoy this emotionally-vivid work that weaves fiction
into fact.