It has been years since I found a book this enjoyable. It tells the story of Juliet Ashton, a London-based author who receives an unexpected letter in 1946 from a man living on the English Channel island of Guernsey. Before long, Juliet is corresponding with a half-dozen or so islanders, and friendships develop. Over the course of some months, Juliet discovers what happened to the islanders during the Nazi occupation, and how the individuals and their community are going about rebuilding their lives and repairing their island.
The first thing to note about this book is that it told entirely through letters, telegrams and diaries. I thought that this storytelling device would quickly become wearisome, but I was wrong. The authors were able to imbue each piece of correspondence with the spirit of its writer: old London friends are warm and open and supportive of each other; new Guernsey friends are tentative and mistrustful in varying degrees, but once the ice breaks, each blossoms in their own unique way.
But perhaps the genius of this book resides in the use of levity to counteract the gravity of the stories regarding the Nazi occupation without trivialising it. The authors do not pull any punches about the darkest deeds of human beings; but as they have laid the foundations of the story on the uplifting natures of intelligent, witty and loving human beings, the weight of the subject matter of the occupation does not seem to press as heavily upon the reader as it might otherwise have done.
It may be fair to say that the finale of the book does not live up to the high standards of all that went before it. But so what! Overall, it is a splendid and enjoyable book.
I read the Allan and Unwin e-book.
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