Amanda

Cross (Grievous) delivers an intense psychological drama set in the aftermath of WWI, when an English headmaster searches for the woman he fell for when he was at Oxford. After surviving combat, Jamie becomes headmaster at St. Stephen’s Academy. Despite his professional success, he continues to pine for Amanda, a lower-class Irish woman whom he dated before she suddenly left Oxford without explanation. Jamie has been writing to Amanda’s friend, Diana, who reveals that Amanda is now working as a governess in London. In letters to Amanda, who now calls herself Marion, Jamie professes his desire to see her again. Cross alternates between Jamie’s and Marion’s perspectives, exploring Marion’s history of abuse in Ireland and hinting at her reason for leaving Oxford. Now, with her newfound stability, Marion is committed to caring for her two charges and worries that a reunion with Jamie will unsettle her. Cross vigorously channels Jamie’s trauma as well, injecting the story with his anger upon returning wounded from the war (“He railed against people’s triumphalism, their high-handed theories and self-pitying grief”). It’s a nuanced tale of love and loss. Agent: Alice Tasman, Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency. (Sept.)