The Little Girls by Elizabeth Bowen is a quietly unsettling novel about memory, friendship, and the shadows cast by the past. In 1914, three eleven-year-old girls on the English coast bury a sealed box before World War I scatters their lives in different directions.
Nearly fifty years later, a series of cryptic classified ads pulls the women back together. Dinah, once bossy and insecure, is now a striking, unconventional widow. Clare, the clever and withdrawn child, has become a commanding businesswoman of independent means. Sheila, the former darling of their circle, has traded youthful hopes for the polished routines of an elegant housewife.
As they reopen the secrets of their shared childhood, the comfortable identities they have built begin to fracture. What was hidden in the box matters less than the emotional truths it forces them to face: old loyalties, betrayals, and wounds that never fully healed.
This atmospheric work of literary fiction will appeal to readers who enjoy character-driven stories, subtle suspense, and nuanced explorations of how past choices shape the present.
- Set between pre–World War I England and the early 1960s
- Focus on female friendship, memory, and identity
- Ideal for fans of reflective, psychologically rich novels
