Monday, June 13, 2011

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Book 32
This was a book that my mother kept telling me to read.  Then she lent her copy to someone else and never got it back.  Good thing the library had an audio copy.

Seriously, because I am not a fan of the novel-told-in-letters genre.  (Is that a genre?  Maybe it's a "form".  Whatever.)  But the audiobook had different voices for each of the many characters and that helped a lot.

So.  England, right after WWII.  Juliet is on a book tour promoting a compilation of articles she wrote during the war when she receives a letter from a man on the island of Guernsey.  He purchased a second-hand book about Charles Lamb that had her name in it as the previous owner and wanted...something.   Another book rec?  I forget.  Whatever.  Correspondence ensues.

Juliet wants to hear all of the stories of the people on Guernsey, which was occupied by the Germans.  Eventually, she thinks there is a new book in it and goes to visit them.

Nothing that happens in the plot of this book is remotely surprising.  But the characters are beyond charming and they have a lot to say about surviving Bad Stuff and finding some peace.

So yeah.  This one is a winner.

2 comments:

Fluffycat said...

It's called an "epistolary novel." Yay four years of college. This book has been on my shelf for a while, but I keep finding other things to read. Hopefully I'll get to it sometime this year.

Anne said...

Ha! Thank you.

It is a nice rainy-weekend book.