Here’s a book that begs to be read in August when minds are melting from the heat and readers want something engaging but not too taxing. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.
Co-authors Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, aunt and niece respectively, have constructed a charming post-World War II epistolary novel that will please fans of the kind of books “they don’t write anymore.”
A book of essays by Charles Lamb finds its way into the hands of one of the Guernsey Islanders. The original owner’s name and address is inside the front cover. Thus begins a warm and humorous correspondence between a resilient, yet war-torn community, and a London war correspondent facing writer’s block.
Little is known about the German occupation of the Island of Guernsey. The authors easily weave the island’s intriguing and turbulent history into the letters of the islanders and create easily recognizable characters with heart. For use in a book discussion, bring along a map of Guernsey. The isolation the islanders faced during wartime is truly remarkable.
