The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society (Laura)
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Mary Ann Shaffer
277 pages
In 1946, Juliet Ashton is a London-based writer who has gained some degree of fame writing fictional accounts of wartime under an assumed name. Now, as London begins to rebuild and recover, Juliet is casting about for new material with which to continue her career. Out of the blue, she receives a letter from a man on the Island of Guernsey, who has found himself in possession of a book she sold through a used bookshop. This begins a correspondence between Juliet and Dawsey Hawkins. Through Dawsey’s letters Juliet learns of the formation of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and the set of circumstances which resulted in a collection of islanders meeting regularly to discuss books. She also begins correspondence with several other society members, and becomes fascinated on an intellectual level with the German occupation of Guernsey during the war, and begins to develop emotional ties with the society’s members. Her eventual visit to the island turns out to be a life-changing event.
The novel takes the form of a series of letters: between Juliet and island residents, and with other significant characters such as her publisher, and another long-time friend. The letters, being highly personal, express characters’ thoughts and feelings in a deeper way than a traditional narrative. And various elements of the story are revealed in small bits, so that everything comes together only after reading several letters from different people. I found some aspects of the plot easy to predict, but in no way did this spoil the book for me. The writing style is breezy and full of humor, the characters are folks you could easily imagine and identify with, and the story is touching on many levels. This is a delightful, highly-recommended book. ( 
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