THE GUERNSEY LITERARY & POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY
A heart-warming and refreshing alternative for your next book club read.
251 pages
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BY MARY ANN SHAFFER & ANNIE BARROWS
251 pages
Apart from the slightly irksome title, The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society is an intriguing and heart-warming novel written through a series of letters. Popular with book clubs.
It begins with Juliet Ashton, a writer living in post Blitz London who, whilst grappling with writer’s block, receives a letter from a Guernsey islander who comes across her name in a second-hand book. Juliet writes back to Dawsey and in time to everyone in the curious literary society.
The letters unravel the tales of the Guernsey Literary Society that turns out to be a fake book club enabling the islanders to hide secrets from the Germans who had occupied the Channel Islands during WW2.
It’s a book about the civilian casualties of war in an occupied but not war-torn territory. It’s about forbidden love stories, living with ‘the enemy’ and the heartache of displaced families that provoked plenty of discussion amongst our group.
The book has been around book clubs for some time (first published in 2008) but it’s a quick read in length and the epistolary format made this book a refreshing book club choice. Lots of 7s and 8s.
A film adaptation of the book starring Lily James has been and gone with mediocre reviews (2018).
- for people who love books -
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