"Both a war novel of the first order and a love story of devastating power, In the Light of Morningis a magnificent new work by one of Britain's finest writers, Tim Pears, the highly acclaimed author of Disputed Landand Landed. It is May 1944 and in Eastern Europe the Second World War is reaching a dramatic and bloody crescendo. High above the mountains of occupied Slovenia an aeroplane drops three British parachutists brash MP Major Jack Farwell, radio operator Sid Dixon, and young academic Lieutenant Tom Freedman sent to assist the resistance in their battle against the Axis forces. Greeted upon arrival by a rag-tag group of Partisans, the men are led off into the countryside. It is early summer, and the mountains and forests teem with life and colour. Despite the distant crackle of gunfire, the war feels a long way off for Tom. The Partisans, too, are not what he was expecting courageous, kind, and alluring, especially Jovan, their commander, and the hauntingly beautiful Marija. Yet after a series of daring encounters, the enemy s net begins to tighten. They find evidence of massacres, of a dark and terrible band of men pursuing them through the