The Night Watch, by Sarah Waters

The conflagration of the Second World War swallowed up all kinds of secrets, and Sarah Waters's thrilling fourth novel blows away some of the dust. Bringing together the lives of four conflicted Londoners, Waters relates the stories of Viv, a young receptionist, her brother Duncan, a conscientious objector, and Helen, a woman caught between lesbian lovers. Told in reverse - the novel opens in 1947 and ends in 1941 - Waters's evocation of blacked-out London shares all the power and tristesse of Greene's The End of the Affair. Her most memorable work yet.