When the World Goes Quiet: A Novel by Gian Sardar

In the final days of World War I, an aspiring artist’s courageous journey is just beginning in a powerful novel about love, danger, and survival by the author of Take What You Can Carry.

It’s 1918 in German-occupied Bruges, Belgium. With luck, Evelien will make it to the end of the war and be given what she was promised: a prized painting in exchange for safeguarding her employer’s possessions. Until then, Evelien knows to keep her head down and stay out of trouble. But life never goes to plan, especially in war.

A member of the Resistance approaches Evelien: steal a list of names hidden in her employer’s home. In return, she’ll get a letter from her long-missing husband, Emiel. She’d lost hope of Emiel’s survival, but the promised letter puts her certainty of his death in question. Evelien begins her mission and soon forms a friendship with a soldier who is struggling with the devastating demands of battle. Their shared passion for art deepens the bond, and Evelien faces a heart-wrenching truth: she longs for Emiel’s safe return…but not necessarily to her.

As the final days of the war loom closer, Evelien has never been in more danger. And should she survive the war’s bitter end, what choices will she make for a life beyond liberation?