Book Talk: Baldacci, ‘Strangers in Time’

As years come and go, there are fewer of us who remember World War II. In the United States, especially on the east coast, we suffered rationing and had to be sure that no light emanated from our homes after dark because of the fear that enemy planes might be passing overhead. But no bombs fell on our nation.

That was not the case in London, the setting of David Baldacci’s newest novel, “Strangers in Time” (2025, 433 pages in hardback edition). His historically fictitious story centers on three main characters, Charlie, Molly, and Ignatius. Charlie is thirteen years old, a “street urchin” who lives with his “gran,” and spends his time roaming the rubble that German bombs have made of much of the East End. “Gran” has sewn labels into his clothes, indicating his address and his name, “The Honorable Charles Elias Matters,” but Charlie doesn’t feel very honorable, living in rags and stealing anything that he thinks he can sell for a few coins. His parents have been killed by German bombs, and Charlie has decided that he’ll get his education in the streets rather than in school.

Molly Wakefield is 15 years old, although her assessment is that she’s practically 16 and no longer a child. Five years earlier, she was one of the children who was sent to the countryside where she would be safe from the blitzkrieg. When she returns to London, it is unrecognizable to her. However, she is able to find her way to her fashionable home and finds only her nanny. Both parents are missing.