5. Front Line

Emma finds herself on the frontline witnessing the brutality of war.

Two sisters, four nights, one city.

April, 1941: Belfast has escaped the worst of the war – so far. Over the next two months, it’s going to be destroyed from above, so that people will say, in horror, My God, Belfast is finished.

Many won’t make it through, and no one who does will remain unchanged.

Following the lives of sisters Emma and Audrey – one engaged to be married, the other in a secret relationship with another woman – as they try to survive the horrors of the four nights of bombing which were the Belfast Blitz,

Lucy Caldwell's timeless and heart-breaking novel about living under duress, about family, and about how we try to stay true to ourselves.

Abridged by Rowan Routh.

Read by Lisa Dwyer Hogg

Producer: Gemma McMullan

A BBC Northern Ireland production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in April 2022.