Front Page Fridays Week-37
Front Page Fridays Week-37
Welcome to Front Page Fridays Week-37. On Fridays I showcase the first page of a brand-new book.
My Front Page Fridays Week-37 guest is AS Andrejevic and her debut novel, Under the Same Moon, published yesterday, 25 September. I’m two chapters into my Kindle copy and really enjoying it.
Here’s the opening:
PROLOGUE
Summer is over in the Northern Hemisphere.
In Serbia, children are walking to school in clear autumn sunshine. They pass the vegetable market where farmers are setting up the day’s produce, golden eggs still warm, purple grapes swelling with sweetness. They pass patisseries, seductive with the smell of burek and freshly baked bread; they pass the church, where morning prayers still hang in the air. Stray dogs follow the children, hoping for a bite of their food and a rub behind the ears.
London has woken to wind and rain. Jelena stands at her bedroom window, thinking about the school run: children bumping umbrellas on the packed pavement, mothers laden with babies and small dogs, PE kits and hastily finished art projects – a small army on the move.
It’s just a rainy day, she tells herself, not yet knowing what this day is about to bring.
She dresses for the weather, puts her carefully folded night dress onto its colour coded shelf in the wardrobe, and goes to wake up her children for school.
Part 1
Six days earlier
Chapter 1
Day One. London.
The city is swollen with water, bracing itself against the storm. All evening, the house in Hampstead has been whipped by wind and rain. From the window of her first-floor office, Jelena can see the dark shapes of the trees in her garden: the paperbark maple which turns scarlet every autumn, the redwood that William planted in this shallow North London soil, grown to only a fraction of its potential.
Through the door jammed open with a stack of old books, she can just see William in his own office across the landing. He’s hunched over the desk, his back turned towards her. She doesn’t mind – she can snack on chocolate or scoop peanut butter out of the jar with her finger, things she likes to do in private. And don’t all couples spend their evenings doing their own thing? It doesn’t seem like a big deal to Jelena. Not yet.
The house is silent. Where are the usual sounds of her home, the hairdryer in Ana-Maria’s bedroom, the siren of Oli’s helicopter from Hamleys’? But there’s only the wailing of an ambulance somewhere in the distance.
She decides it’s not too late for one final cup of tea. Jelena loves small English habits, although the timings of things – meals, bedtime – are still foreign to her, even after more than two decades in England. She takes off her glasses and closes the laptop in case William comes in looking for Tipp-Ex. Like most men, he can never find anything, including his own stationery. Hers is neatly arranged in the cupboard because an orderly cupboard is an orderly mind.
As she descends the stairs, the injury in her left hip slowing her down – no longer an agony, more of a niggle refusing to lift – she thinks she can hear a knock on the door. Did someone really just knock, at this hour? Recently there have been reports of robberies in North London. She shrugs; criminals don’t knock, do they? Hopefully it’s not one of those conmen who pretend to be army veterans and try to sell you overpriced mops. Maybe it’s a charity worker. She ought to give them something for their effort, in this weather.
As she approaches the door, she passes the kitchen and her glance falls on the dining table where someone has left one of the chairs out, at an angle. She’ll straighten it after she’s answered the late caller. Just for a moment, she examines the room with a keen eye.
About the Book:
In autumn, Serbia smells of roasted red peppers.
This is how Jelena remembers her country, although she left it behind a long time ago. She has tried to forget those days when newspaper headlines wrote about Serbian Butchers and Clobba Sloba. Her home and life are as English as they can be, and she has even changed her name to Helen.
But war finds you anywhere – that’s what the clairvoyant tells her, on the day Jelena hides her children from the suspected war criminal sleeping in the basement of her Hampstead home. And now, to keep them all safe, she will have to become someone new – or perhaps, someone she once used to be.
Purchase Link:
About the Author:
AS Andrejevic is a Serbian-British writer whose work has appeared in The Lampeter Review, Storgy, The Wrong Quarterly, Scrutiny Journal, The Dawntreader, Scary Mommy, Literary Mama, Brain, Child, and other magazines. Her plays have been longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize, shortlisted by Bristol Old Vic, and supported by Arts Council England. She’s represented by Lorella Belli Literary Agency, and her debut novel, Under the Same Moon, is due out with APS Books in September 2025. She teaches Creative Writing at the University of Gloucestershire, where she encourages her students to think big, write with honesty, and stay true to their voice.
Social Media Links:
Website: https://asandrejevic.com/
Instagram: aleksandra.andrejevic034
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/senja.andrejevic.bullock
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-aleksandra-senja-andrejevic-1999362a/
Links to other writing:
Short stories, personal essays and creative non-fiction published by AS Andrejevic can be accessed in one place through the University of Gloucestershire repository at https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/view/creators/6493.html
I hope you enjoyed reading Front Page Fridays Week-37. Please come back next time when I’ll be featuring a different author and the first page of their book.
And please take a look at books already featured on Front Page Fridays:
1. Blood Ribbons by Lin Le Versha – https://www.rachelsargeant.co.uk/front-page-fridays-week-1/
2. Fatal Blow by Brian Price – https://www.rachelsargeant.co.uk/front-page-fridays-week-2/
3. Can I Trust You? by Rob Gittins – Front Page Fridays Week-3 – Rachel Sargeant
4. The Last Bird of Paradise by AJ Aberford – Front Page Fridays Week-4 – Rachel Sargeant
5. Never Forgive You by Hilly Barmby – Front Page Fridays Week-5 – Rachel Sargeant
6. The Mists of Pencarrack Moor by Terri Nixon – Front Page Fridays Week-6 - Rachel Sargeant
7. The Thief of Joy by Stacey Murray – Front Page Fridays Week-7 - Rachel Sargeant
8. Edge of the Land by Malcolm Hollingdrake – Front Page Fridays Week-8 - Rachel Sargeant
9. The Mind of a Murderer by Michael Wood - https://www.rachelsargeant.co.uk/front-page-fridays-week-9/
10. The Midnight Man by Julie Anderson – Front Page Fridays Week-10 - Rachel Sargeant
11. Dark Road Home by Sheila Bugler – Front Page Fridays Week-11 - Rachel Sargeant
12. Her Charming Man by Rachel Sargeant – Front Page Fridays Week-12 - Rachel Sargeant
13. Wedding Bells at the Lakeside Hotel by Linda Huber – Front Page Fridays Week-13 - Rachel Sargeant
14. Dark Island by Daniel Aubrey – Front Page Fridays Week-14 - Rachel Sargeant
15. The Shame by Maureen Myant – Front Page Fridays Week-15 - Rachel Sargeant
16. Dead Mile by Jo Furniss – Front Page Fridays Week-16 — Rachel Sargeant
17. The Violin and Candlestick by David Jarvis – Front Page Fridays Week-17 — Rachel Sargeant
18. New Memories by S.E. Shepherd – Front Page Fridays Week-18 — Rachel Sargeant
19. Young Blood by Victoria Gemmell – Front Page Fridays Week-19 — Rachel Sargeant
20. Private Investigations by Rob Gittins – Front Page Fridays Week-20 — Rachel Sargeant
21. The Car Horn revolution by A.J. Aberford – Front Page Fridays Week-21 — Rachel Sargeant
22. What Lies Beneath by Maureen Myant – Front Page Fridays Week-22 — Rachel Sargeant
23. A Safe Place by Stephanie Carty – Front Page Fridays Week-23 — Rachel Sargeant
24. Fatal Image by Brian Price – Front Page Fridays Week-24 — Rachel Sargeant
25. Run For Your Lies by A.A. Abbott – Front Page Fridays Week-25 — Rachel Sargeant
26. A Walk in the Park by Natalie Kleinman – Front Page Fridays Week-26 — Rachel Sargeant
27. A Storm in a Teacup by Rachael Gray – Front Page Fridays Week-27 — Rachel Sargeant
28. The Midnight Bookshop by Amanda James – https://www.rachelsargeant.co.uk/blog/front-page-fridays-week-28
29. A Death in the Afternoon by Julie Anderson – Front Page Fridays Week-29 — Rachel Sargeant
30. Justice by Madalyn Morgan – Front Page Fridays Week-30 — Rachel Sargeant
31. Let Me Out by Amanada Brittany – https://www.rachelsargeant.co.uk/blog/front-page-fridays-week-31
32. A Pocketful of Poisons by Brian Price – https://www.rachelsargeant.co.uk/blog/85orb6bc15cs2voyn37yv3jprw0jec
33. Tribute by Madalyn Morgan – Front Page Fridays Week-33 — Rachel Sargeant
34. Mistress of the Manor by Cara Clayton – https://www.rachelsargeant.co.uk/blog/front-page-fridays-week-34
35. Waves of Change in Pelican Crossing by Maggie Chistensen – Front Page Fridays Week-35 — Rachel Sargeant
36. A French Inheritance by Jennifer Bohnet - Front Page Fridays Week-36