Homeland — Clare Francis

In this “thoughtful, deeply atmospheric novel” by the author of Wolf Winter, a Polish refugee faces suspicion after a death in rural postwar England (Daily Mail).
 
After World War II ends, soldiers are pouring back into Britain, and in 1946, the country is on the brink of the harshest winter in a hundred years. Blizzards rage and everything is in short supply: jobs, coal, food.
 
In the Somerset wetlands, a Polish veteran named Wladyslaw Malinowski seeks work as a laborer. The soldiers of the Second Polish Corps are reluctant to leave, and many of the locals view them with uncertainty, but Malinowski manages to find employment on a farm. He also finds a potential romance in the local schoolmistress, Stella. But when murder rocks the small community, suspicion falls on the outsider.
 
From the international bestselling author of A Dark Devotion and Betrayal, Homeland is an insightful look at how hardship and social upheaval can shape -- or shatter -- everyday lives, “a very fine novel indeed” (The Independent).