The Year We Escaped by Suzanne Leal
2025 Longlist - CYA Category
About Suzanne Leal
Suzanne Leal is the author of novels The Teacher's Secret, Border Street and The Deceptions, for which she won the Nib People's Choice Prize and was shortlisted for the Davitt Awards, and the Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award. A senior member of the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal and facilitator at community, corporate and literary events, Suzanne is the host of Thursday Book Club, a relaxed, friendly book club connecting readers online.
About The Year We Escaped
With war on their doorstep, German classmates Klara and Rachel, and French brothers Lucien and Paul, are forced to leave their homes. They are taken to Gurs, a French detention camp in the south-west of France. It's a crowded place, with little comfort and even less food.
When Klara and Rachel are promised safe refuge in a remote French village, Lucien and Paul are anxious to join them — and will risk their own lives to get there.
Filled with adventure, danger and intrigue, this is the story of four unlikely friends desperate to escape from a war that keeps coming closer.
