Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.
Dial Press Book. August 2008.
Reviewed by Cris Wilson
Port Townsend already loves this book. I think we are a mirror to the Guernsey Literary Society and the island's regular folks ourselves. If you enjoy Alexander McCall Smith's "Sunday Philosophy Club" series you'll like this even more. Traditional without seeming stale, and romantic without being naïve” (San Francisco Chronicle), this epistolary novel, based on Mary Ann Shaffer’s painstaking, lifelong research, is a homage to booklovers and a nostalgic portrayal of an era. As her quirky, loveable characters cite the works of Shakespeare, Austen, and the Brontës, Shaffer subtly weaves those writers’ themes into her own narrative.(Book List) However, it is the tragic stories of life under Nazi occupation that animate the novel and give it its urgency; furthermore, the novel explores the darker side of human nature without becoming maudlin. The Rocky Mountain News criticized the novel’s lighthearted tone and characterizations, but most critics agreed that, with its humor and optimism, Guernsey “affirms the power of books to nourish people during hard times” (Washington Post).
