This ambitious masterpiece of a novel follows the three Seagrave children, beginning in 1919 Dorset, where first-born Cristabel constructs an outdoor theater from the rib cage of a whale that washes up on the beach of Chilcombe manor. As the siblings reach adulthood, Joanna Quinn deftly portrays their contributions to World War II as a member of the WAAF, a Land Army Girl, a private, and, eventually, as secret agents. Crista, Flossie, and Digby always return to one another, bound by the sentimental plays of their childhood…until the drama of war threatens to tear them apart. (RR)