House of Orphans - Helen Dunmore

Finland in the 1900s: revolution is wafting in on the cold winds from Russia, but in the provincial backwoods, life for the widowed country doctor Thomas Esklund continues, quiet, settled and sedate. Then he hires a new young housekeeper from the local orphanage.

Eeva - assured, unpredictable and independent, utterly mysterious and unlike any servant Thomas has ever met, ruffles the feathers of his nosy neighbours. Their question is - could Thomas just possibly be falling in love with her? But Eeva yearns for an escape from service and a return to her childhood home in Helsinki - and with Thomas's help she will make that break and return to her first love as well as the happy dangers of life with her politicised comrades. Until a crisis forces her to rethink her plans and call for Thomas's help again.....

House of Orphans is a spellbinding story of love and loneliness, of the differences between change and revolution, and of the terrorism that lurks everywhere in times of change, even in our private midst.