Sunday, August 10, 2008

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

I am grateful to my friend Melissa for mentioning the title of this book while we were sitting around last Sunday reading the papers (she was reading the New York Times Book Review). The title was intriguing enough that I downloaded the first chapter as a sample to my Kindle, and by the time I'd read the first 500 words I was hooked. I have always loved books that are written in the form of letters written between people ("epistolary novels," though I've never been able to pronounce that word). This book is fantastic - letters between a novelist living in post-WWII London and the members of a literary society on the Channel Islands, which had been occupied by the Nazis during the war.
 
I literally could not put this book down. I read and read and read until I was finished. I highly recommend it. If you're interested in reading more wonderful books in the form of letters, I would also recommend 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff and of course the wonderful Daddy Long Legs (and its "sequel," Dear Enemy) by Jean Webster.

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