Four years after Alfie Summerfield’s father left London to become a soldier in World War I, he has not returned but Alfie, now nine, is shining shoes at King’s Cross Station when he happens to learn that his father is at a nearby hospital being treated for shell shock.

• ISBN: 9781627790314
• Author: Boyne, John
• Published: 2013 , Henry Holt
• Themes: disease, Fathers and sons, Mental illness, military, World War I
• Descriptors: Awards, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Intermediate (ages 9-14), Ireland
• No. of pages: 256