The Overlook Press
June 2018
On Sale: May 29, 2018
Featuring: Kate Summersby; Ike Eisenhower
288 pages ISBN: 1468316354 EAN: 9781468316353 Kindle: B07935L736 Hardcover / e-Book Add to Wish List
The sweeping love story at the heart of the Second World War, vividly reimagining General Eisenhower and Kate Summersbyβs infamous, star-crossed affair
In his latest historical novel Ike and Kay, acclaimed author James MacManus brings to life an unbelievably true and controversial romance and the poignant characters and personalities that shaped the course of world history.
In 1942, Kay Summersbyβs life is changed forever when she is conscripted to drive General Eisenhower on his fact-finding visit to wartime London. Despite Eisenhowerβs marriage to Mamie, the pair takes an immediate liking to each other and he buys Kay a rare wartime luxury: a box of chocolates.
So begins a tumultuous relationship that, against all military regulation, sees Kay traveling with Eisenhower on missions to far-flung places before the final assault on Nazi Germany. The general does dangerously little to conceal his affair with the woman widely known as βIkeβs shadow,β and in letters Mamie bemoans his new obsession with βIreland.β That does not stop him from using his influence to grant Kay citizenship and rank in the US army, drawing her closer still when he returns to America. When officials discover Eisenhowerβs plans to divorce from his wife they threaten the fragile but passionate affair, and Kay is forced to take desperate measures to hold onto the man she loves . . .
Based on the scandalous true story of General Eisenhowerβs secret World War II love affair, Ike and Kay is a compelling story of love, duty, sacrifice, and heartbreak, set against the backdrop of the most tumultuous period of the twentieth century.