WINNER OF THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2023
One of Lit Hub’s and Zibby Owens’s Most Anticipated Books of 2025 • One of The Washington Post's 10 Noteworthy Books of April 2025
“Adroit, precise storytelling, atmospheric and satisfying; These Days is a novel of real substance.” —Hilary Mantel, Booker Prize-winning author of Wolf Hall
“In pared-down prose, Caldwell affects a sense of immediacy, showing the surreal and terrifying impact of the early-morning bombings via nightmarish sounds and eerie imagery. Fans of WWII historical fiction will be enthralled.” —Publishers Weekly
“What a writer Lucy Caldwell is. Emotionally astute, stylistically delightful, exquisitely lyrical. These Days grabbed me on the first page and left me breathless.” —Louise Kennedy, Women’s Prize shortlisted author of Trespasses
“Beautiful and poignant, this intimate and vivid portrayal of wartime life shines a light on the personal toll of war while quietly recognizing the resilience and unity of communities under attack. A powerful read and a great selection for book clubs.” —Booklist
“What a visceral, powerful, authentic novel! It’s hard to believe Lucy Caldwell didn’t actually live through the Belfast Blitz, it’s so accurately depicted. I felt I was there with the bombs, the blood, the chaos, the fear, and the resilience.” —Tracy Chevalier, New York Times bestselling author of Girl With A Pearl Earring
“A hardworking elegy for a city’s devastation.” —Kirkus
“Lucy Caldwell’s These Days effortlessly and elegantly transports the reader to WWII Belfast through the lives of women trying to survive the firebombing unleashed by the Nazis on the northern Irish city. Beautifully written, the novel is eye-opening in its frank depiction of a little-known aspect of the war, and life-affirming in unexpected ways. A must read.” —Mark Sullivan, bestselling author of Beneath a Scarlet Sky
“A story of haunted love and heartbreak set during the Belfast Blitz in 1941, These Days . . . looks set to be Caldwell’s breakout book in America.” —Lit Hub (Most Anticipated Books of 2025)
“A highly accomplished novel that will surely become the defining work of fiction about the Belfast Blitz . . . sensationally good . . . It’s the kind of writing you want to inhale and feel coursing through your bloodstream.” —Sunday Times (UK)
“Haunting . . . This fine novel by one of Northern Ireland’s most accomplished contemporary writers . . . brilliantly evokes wartime love and heartbreak.” —Joseph O’Connor, Guardian (UK)
“These Days is an intimate celebration of sisterhood and a moving tribute to childhoods cut short by war. Rich in voice and beautifully rooted in place, Lucy Caldwell’s characters leap from the page in all their joy and devastation. The result is a novel of stunning ambition.” —Sarah Jessica Parker, SJP Lit
2025-03-08
One Belfast family’s experience of the intense bombing raids of World War II becomes a lens through which to witness the whole city’s trauma and grief.
Philip Bell, a doctor, and his wife, Florence, live a comfortable middle-class existence in the Northern Ireland capital with their two adult daughters, Emma and Audrey, and younger son, Paul. But in the spring of 1941, they, like so many, endured the Belfast Blitz, a sequence of intensely destructive German bombing attacks that included, on one single night, the dropping of 100,000 incendiary devices. Caldwell uses the Bells’ joint and individual perspectives to depict many facets of these events. Audrey, newly engaged to Richard Graham, helps a 6-year-old child reunite with her family. Emma, a First Aid volunteer, survives a close impact but also suffers a terrible loss. Philip is fundamentally shaken by what he witnesses at the hospital. And later, among scenes of tremendous destruction, with uncounted numbers missing and presumed dead, Florence realizes Paul must be evacuated out of the city for his own safety. Around them, Caldwell introduces a lesser population of associated characters, widening the story’s scope to include black market smugglers, children, co-workers, and more. There’s a documentary quality to this broad, fact-driven panorama which lends detail and texture, although it also slows the storytelling. Emma (“kind, stubborn, awkward”), Audrey (“flighty, impulsive, earnest”), and Florence—haunted by a long-lost love—emerge most strongly, their differing perspectives lending emotional depth. The figures around them often seem less fully imagined. Similarly, Caldwell creates some moments of piercing self-knowledge or realization for her characters in contrast with other, more predictable scenes. But overall, her efforts to capture the literally earth-shaking experience of such a violent and terrifying overthrow of normality are effective, affecting, and achieved with sincerity.
A hardworking elegy for a city’s devastation.
