LoveReading Says
LoveReading Says
Juliet Ashton is stuck in a rut. During the war, writing as Lizzie Bickerstaff, she had purpose; her weekly newspaper column lifted spirits and entertained when people needed it most. Now, she is suffering writers block in her professional life and in her personal life she feels as if she’s not ready to step off the precipice into the future being held out before her.
Then, she receives a letter, from a man called Dawsey Adams and finds herself drawn into a world that offers friendship and inspiration. She sets off on a trip to Guernsey where she finds a people scarred by war, hiding secrets in plain sight and offering her the chance of not just love, but also healing and deep connection.
This is a love story, but it also so much more. It is a story of belonging and facing up to the past in order to grasp the best of life in the present. It is a book I cried and laughed over and at the end, on the very last page, I wanted to start reading it again.
Guest Editor Faith Hogan
LoveReading
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The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Synopsis
To give them hope she must tell their story It's 1946. The war is over, and Juliet Ashton has writer's block. But when she receives a letter from Dawsey Adams of Guernsey - a total stranger living halfway across the Channel, who has come across her name written in a second hand book - she enters into a correspondence with him, and in time with all the members of the extraordinary Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Through their letters, the society tell Juliet about life on the island, their love of books - and the long shadow cast by their time living under German occupation. Drawn into their irresistible world, Juliet sets sail for the island, changing her life forever.
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Press Reviews
Annie Barrows, Mary Ann Shaffer Press Reviews
'Delightfully spirited ... You'd have to be pretty hard-hearted not to fall under its spell' - Daily Mail
'Atmospheric and touching ... it is about love and friendship and the ability of these qualities to survive adversity' - Alexander McCall Smith, The Times
'I can't remember the last time I discovered a novel as smart and delightful as this one ... Treat yourself to this book, please - I can't recommend it highly enough' - Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love
'Every now and again, a book comes along that is simple yet effective, readable yet memorable. This is one such delight ... It is a uniquely humane vision of inhumanity; one to lift even the most cynical of spirits' - The Times
'Funny, moving and quite unlike anything I have read for a long time' - Sunday Telegraph
'Shaffer's writing, with its self-deprecating humour and jaunty stylishness, is a heart-warmingly nostalgic journey into another age' - Independent
'This heart-warming novel contrasts the grimness of occupied Guernsey with the humour and courage of the inhabitants' - Daily Mail
Author
About Annie Barrows, Mary Ann Shaffer
MARY ANN SHAFFER was born in 1934 in Martinsburg, West Virginia. She worked as an editor, a librarian and in bookshops. She became interested in Guernsey while visiting London in 1976. On a whim, she decided to fly to Guernsey but became stranded there as a heavy fog descended and no boats or planes were permitted to leave the island. As she waited for the fog to clear, she came across a book called Jersey Under the Jack-Boot, and so her fascination with the Channel Isles began. Many years later, when goaded by her own literary club to write a book, Mary Ann naturally thought of Guernsey. Mary Ann died in February 2008. She knew that this, her only novel, was to be published in thirteen countries. Before she died she wrote, `I must tender special thanks to my niece, Annie, who stepped in to finish this book after unexpected health issues interrupted my ability to work shortly after the manuscript was sold. Without blinking an eye, she put down the book she was writing, pushed up her sleeves, and set to work on my manuscript. It was my great good luck to have a writer like her in the family, and this book could not have been done without her.' ANNIE BARROWS is the author the best-selling Ivy and Bean series for children, as well as The Magic Half and Magic in the Mix, and, most recently, a young adult novel entitled Nothing. Her second novel for adults, The Truth According to Us, was published in 2015. She lives with her family in Northern California.
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