The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is the moving first novel of Mary Ann Shaffer, a former librarian who tragically died before being able to see her book in print. The book is an epistolary novel as it is made up of letters, with the story being told through the correspondences between various characters. This is a writing style that I find intriguing and if done well, like in the case of this particular novel, impressive.
Set in the aftermath of World War Two the novel tells the story of writer Juliet Ashton and a group of people from Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands that was invaded and occupied by German forces during the war.
Juliet is struggling to come up with an idea for her next writing project when she receives a letter from Dawsey Adams, a man from Guernsey who happened to acquire a book that was once Juliet’s. Through the correspondence that follows between them, Juliet discovers that Dawsey belongs to a literary society on Guernsey. The society began during the war and united a range of Guernsey people, providing them with something positive to focus on during the bleak years of the occupation. Members include the matriarchal Amelia, free spirited Isola, fisherman Eben, would be chef Will Thisbee and the loyal, strong and brave Elizabeth.
Juliet soon has a number of society members corresponding with her and discovers that she may have just found the perfect subject for her next writing project. However as Juliet gets to know more and more about the society and its members her attachment to them increases and the journey she makes to Guernsey to finally meet them all will alter the course of her life forever.
The novel tells a moving story that depicts the very best and very worst of the human race, as well as the amazing strength and resilience of the human spirit in times of utter hardship and oppression.
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