Persephone Books republishes books, usually by mid-twentieth-century women writers. They are known for their signature smooth grey covers, and for being gripping portraits of domestic life. I have long adored many of these books, and was honoured when asked to write the Preface to Earth and High Heaven. This is a classic Romeo and Juliet story set against the appalling, deeply entrenched anti-semitism of 1940s Montreal. It was first published in 1944, when it was a worldwide bestseller, but, of course, it still feels uncomfortably relevant today.