A woman; a war; a child that changed everything. Spanning the sweep of the twentieth century, we must be brave is a luminous and profoundly moving novel about the people we rescue and the ways in which they rescue us back. She was fast asleep on the back seat of the bus. Curled up, thumb in mouth. Four, maybe five years old. I turned around. The last few passengers were shuffling away from me down the aisle to the doors. ‘whose is this child?’ i called. Nobody looked back.