An unusual title...for an unusual book. Equally unusual is that it has been written by two women. When Mary Ann Shaffer's health prevented her from completing the book, her niece Annie Barrows lifted the pen and filled her aunt's shoes...seamlessly.
The story takes place post WWII between London and the isle of Guernsey and tells of life during and just after the German occupation of the island. The characters are real in every sense but fact and in the course of the 5 hours it took me to read this poetry (in one sitting), I felt the emotional highs and lows...I wept tears of joy and sorrow and I laughed along with them all.
I knew I was being taken to a wonderful place, when on page 11, the main character, Juliet Ashton expresses her feelings about reading in a letter to Mr. Dawsey Adams of Guernsey:
That's what I love about reading: one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and that tiny thing will lead you onto another book, and another bit there will lead you onto a third book. It's geometrically progressive -- all with no end in sight, and for no other reason than sheer enjoyment.
She took the words right out of my mouth and I knew I had found a kindred spirit. I settled in for the night -- and the early hours of the next morning. I never once considered putting it aside until the next day. I was "there" with them all. It would have been like turning my back on them.
This is a story filled with possibilities, with choices, with courage, with love, and with humour...and I'm still not 100% convinced that these characters are not flesh and blood...
