In 2022, Heather Marshall dazzled historical fiction lovers with her debut novel Looking for Jane, which explores underground abortion access in 1970s Toronto. Now she's back with another historical title called The Secret History of Audrey James that takes readers to Berlin on the cusp of the Second World War.

The Secret History of Audrey James tells the story of Audrey James, a pianist who is about to graduate from music school. Living with her best friend Isle Kaplan, she dreads returning home to England and leaving her behind. But as the Nazi party's power increases, Isle's family is targeted. Her parents and brother disappear and her house is confiscated by Nazi officials. Little do they know, Isle is hiding in the attic and Audrey becomes their housekeeper in the hopes of saving her friend.

Marshall was inspired by Mona Parsons, the only Canadian civilian woman imprisoned by the Nazis for helping downed Allied airmen find safety in the Netherlands, she told CBC Books in an email.

"She lived an incredible life but isn't very well known, even in Canada. So I was honoured to borrow from her experiences to construct the story of my main character, Audrey James, who joins a cell of the real-life resistance movement that tried to sabotage the Nazi regime from within Germany itself."

"Mona's story made me reflect a lot on the nature of self-sacrifice — that it can happen in increments, or be sudden and profound — why we do it, and its relationship to trauma. The motif of the novel is the scars we bear after traumatic experiences, and how we learn to live in new skin that will never be quite the same as it was before, which I think is (unfortunately) a relatable theme for many readers."

The Secret History of Audrey James will be out on June 4, 2024. You can read an excerpt below.

The soldiers are sitting outside playing cards when they notice the woman staggering down the street.

The small Dutch border town they recently liberated from the Germans is quiet on this warm spring afternoon, and the soldiers have settled themselves in a circle using cargo boxes as makeshift chairs and tables in the absence of any real furniture. Canteens rest on the dusty ground at their feet while the sun turns the tips of their ears and the backs of their necks pink, the same sun that warmed their skin back home. After so many months of despair, they feel a sense of peace and optimism.

These five soldiers are part of the Nova Scotia Highlanders, a proud contingent of the province's best and bravest young lads. Or at least, what's left of the contingent. They've lost many men along the way, but those who remain are bonded tighter than they are to their own flesh and blood. Many grew up together, went to school together. Their mothers belong to the same quilting circles and church bazaar committees. Their fathers go fishing out on the flashing bays of the Atlantic where they smoke cigars and avoid discussions of the last war, burying the appalling realities that they didn't even dare reveal to their own sons. They watched, tight-throated and helpless as their boys shipped out in their crisp new uniforms, drunk on the dangerous youthful delusion of invincibility that they themselves once felt.

The young soldiers think of their families now as they run their tongues over their teeth. Each man considers the hand he's been dealt.

One craves his mother's fresh squeezed lemonade. Another longs for the touch of his girl's warm hand on his arm, and hopes that she'll be waiting when — and if — he returns. And each man wants to win this card game so that he can line his threadbare pockets with cigarettes. They welcome the burning, dry heat in their lungs on cold evenings, a reminder that they are still alive and breathing where other, less fortunate men are dead and rotting in a constellation of unmarked graves in France.

When they hear a scratch in the dirt on the otherwise deserted road, the soldiers' heads snap up. Their eyes squint into the light for the source of the sound. They're always on high alert even though they've taken Holland from the Nazis. A soldier can never be too careful.

But it's only a woman on the road. No threat.

As she shuffles closer, they see her dress is torn, her blond hair dishevelled. She is missing a shoe.

One of the soldiers drops his cards and jogs toward her, reaching her just as her knees give way. He catches the woman and gently lowers her to the ground, shouts to his comrades to fetch the medic. Her bare foot is bleeding and badly bruised. Her face is dirty, lips cracked and dry. Her blond hair reminds him of his little sister's, and in that moment, he just wants to go home.

He calls for water and a canteen is thrust into his hand. "Drink," he tells the woman. "If you can."

Her grey-blue eyes grow wide and she grips his hand. "English!" she whispers.

The soldier nods. "Canadian."

She tries to take the canteen, but her fingers tremble violently. The soldier rests it against her lips and tips some water into her parched mouth. She splutters at first, but then gulps it down. When she finishes the canteen, a drop of water slips down her chin. The soldier wipes it away, revealing pale skin beneath the layer of grime.

"What's your name, love?" he asks.

The medic arrives and squats down beside her. He shines a bright light into her eyes, and she shudders at the memory of the searchlights, her chest tightening like a rubber band.

The medic takes her wrist and presses his finger down to locate her weak pulse. "What's your name, miss? Where are you from?"

It's been a long time.

"Audrey," she says, her raspy voice a little louder this time. "Audrey James."

From THE SECRET HISTORY OF AUDREY JAMES by Heather Marshall. Copyright © 2024 by Heather Marshall. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster Canada, a Division of Simon & Schuster.