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

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is set in England shortly after World War II. The main character is an author trying to decide on a topic for her next book; she had been writing satirical commentary on the war until recently. A letter arrives from a stranger who lives on the channel island of Guernsey, and they begin to correspond. Though the entire story takes place during 1946, the lives of the island inhabitants haven’t really moved past the German occupation. The people still show signs of being deprived of life’s comforts, and friends and family members haven’t all returned to the island. Even though it is a wonderful story about friendship, reading, love and family, the book also serves to illustrate how long tragedy stays with a community.

This book is written in a very interesting (though certainly not unheard of) style. The narration comes in the form of letters written between the characters, and there isn’t any actual narrator at work. I should say that the narration comes from selected letters, because not all of the characters’ correspondence is included; there are references to events and conversations that we don’t hear of firsthand. I enjoy this; I feel that readers and authors are hesitant to leave anything to the imagination, which is what fiction is supposed to be all about. Happily, Shaffer and Barrows were able to omit letters that they did not deem necessary without leaving anything wanting in the story.