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

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society | Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows | A charmer!

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The Guernsey Liter...

	The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows The Dial Press, 2008 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 229 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

? I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.? January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she?s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb?.

As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends?and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society?born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island?boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.

Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society?s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.

Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises, and of finding connection in the most surprising ways.

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A wonderful book!

This is one of the best books I've read in a long time -- witty, endearing characters, funny, heartbreaking. The subject, more serious than the title suggests, is the Nazi occupation of Guernsey during World War II and the aftermath. I learned a lot, laughed, cried, and was very sorry when I finished the book. I wanted more!

A charmer!

A delightful book with something for everyone: WWII, a little known island, interesting people, romance - even food (or lack of it in this instance)! I'm not a great fan of epistolary novels - novels written in the form of letters - but here the genre works just fine, a natural choice in the circumstances. I was fascinated at how deftly characters are made to reveal themselves by how they write back and forth to each other. A real treat!

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Stunning!

I rarely give a book 5 stars- BUT this one has it all. Well-drawn and interesting characters, an incredible setting, dire circumstances, suspense....and even a tiny bit of romance. It is told in the form of letters-an epistolary tale, an unusual and often difficult way to tell a story. But it works beautifully here.

Set in 1946, following World War II, author Juliet Ashton receives a letter from a man, Dawsey Adams, who has purchased a used book by Charles Lamb. This book has Juliet's name and London address written inside the front cover. Touched by his love of Lamb, Juliet goes out of her way to get him more books, and replies, asking him more about some of the stories in the first letter, specifically the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, formed during the German occupation of Guernsey.

Continued correspondence entices Juliet to visit Guernsey, to try to find a subject for an article she has been commissioned to write about the reading habits of the Society. She may even find a subject for her second book in the stories of the occupation she has heard from their letters. The letters even distract her from a burgeoning romance with a handsome and wealthy American publisher.

Mary Ann Shaffer, who had worked as a librarian, editor, and in bookshops, wrote the book over a number of years, found an agent, and as the editing process began, became ill with cancer. She died in February of 2008. Her niece and author Annie Barrows finished up the editing process, hence the co-authorship.

Armchair Interviews says: If this reviewer, a librarian raves about this book--we must say: "Highly recommended."

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A book to be read for information and for pleasure

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a very good summer read. The end is, in my opinion, a "hallmark" ending; the mechanism of letter writing gets too, too much by the end of the book. But, on the way to the end, one learns a lot about life on Guernsey during WWll and about very decent people who did their very best to survive and even to flourish under war-time restrictions. It will not take you long to read this book. When you finish reading, you will say, "now that was nice." Nancy Salen

Better Than Therapy

The epistolary novel form is a great conceit for telling the story of those occupied by the Germans on Guernsey Island in WWII. I found myself reading this book slowly so it wouldn't end and used it as a treat to return to after a trying day or when I was feeling down. I admire books about people who keep that "stiff upper lip" through it all. While this is fiction, of course, I'm imagine there were real people banding together for good during these trying times, just like in the book.

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