Alan Reynolds 

In 1999 Kosovo, Katya Gjikolli, a school teacher and English graduate, and her baby son are forced to flee from the clutches of Serb militia after her husband, a KLA fighter, is reported captured by the Serbs and is believed killed. After she too is caught and subjected to her worst nightmare she makes a dramatic escape and is rescued by a NATO patrol.

She is eventually evacuated to the UK via a squalid refugee camp in Macedonia and is resettled with another refugee and her daughter in a tower block in Newcastle. The story follows the two women’s differing experiences and how they cope with acclimatising to the new culture.

We learn too about the local population and how they are also trying to survive and make the most of their lives which become inexorably intertwined with the refugees.