From the multi-award-winning authora beautiful, stunningly ambitious novel telling the story of a young girls battle for survival and search for the truth in occupied Vienna**WINNER OF THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2026**A fierce celebration of the messy nature of humanity itselfDaily MailA shimmering masterworkAlice AustenAn extraordinary novel about resilienceAmanda CraigA mesmerising tapestry woven across historyGina RipponGripping and profound. A masterful work of rare complexity that lingers and hauntsChristine LeunensAdelheid Brunner does not speak. She writes and draws instead and her ambition is to own one thousand matchboxes. Her grandmother cannot make sense of this, but Adelheid will stop at nothing to achieve her dream. She makes herself invisible, hiding in cupboards with her pet rat, Franz Joseph, listening in on conversations she cant fully comprehend.Then she meets Dr Asperger, a man who lets children play all day and who recognises the importance of matchboxes. He invites Adelheid to come and live at the Vienna paediatric clinic, where she and other children like herself will live under observation.But the date is 1938 and the place is Vienna a city of political instability, a place of increasing fear and violence. When the Nazis march into the city, a new world is created and difficult choices must be made.Why are the clinic’s children disappearing, and where do they go? Adelheid starts to suspect that some of Dr Aspergers games are played for the highest stakes. In order to survive, she must play a game whose rules she cannot yet understand.Triumphant and tragic, soulful and spirited,The Matchbox Girlis a burningly brilliant book that brings the stories of a generation of lost children into the light.A vividly imagined story told with real drive and heartRachel SeiffertUnique and profoundly humanEmma DarwinOne of the most charismatic and companionable narrators Ive ever come acrossToby LittThe sheer brilliance of Alice Jollys writing stopped me in my tracks, stole my breathAngela FindlayAn important, powerful book, so real I couldnt put it downKathleen Jones