The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

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

*Note: I read this book quite some time ago and reviewed it on a book site. This is my review from that time. I wanted to add it to this blog since this is where I do all my book reviews now.

I love this book! I wasn't so sure I would like it and only picked it up because a cross country friend said she was reading it and said I should too. It's written letter style as correspondences between characters. That is the part I thought I might find tedious, but did not. My only criticism would be that although the personalities of the characters was established nicely through the letters, their voices were not. All the letters were too well written, not as variable as each character's individual voice would be.

The era is 1946 post WWII. The story revolves around an author looking for a book to write. By chance a man on Guernsey Island off Great Britain contacts her by finding her name inscribed in a book she no longer owns. She begins corresponding with him and the members of his book club and eventually moves to the island to research the story she wants to write.

There is no huge plot cliffhanger but rather a tender story of how WWII touched the lives of the inhabitants of the island and how they survived it. I found it hard to put down. Recommend!!

Addendum. This was Mary Ann Shaffer's first novel and sadly she died in 2008 just before it's publication. I would so have loved to read what other stories she had inside.