By Mary Ann Shaffer

Some Books you Read, Some Books you Enjoy. But Some Books Swallow you up Heart and Soul.—-Joanne Harris

I was completely transported by this book. It was partly on its own merits, but also because it forcibly reminded me of another book which is very dear to my heart, Dear Enemy by Jean Webster. It has been a long time that I kept putting off finishing a book because I didn’t want it to end. I researched Charles Lamb, the Guernsey Islands, Its occupation by the Germans, read about the upcoming movie, went back and read the first several letters at the beginning of the book, looked at 3 episodes of the mini-series Island at War, etc. etc. I really can’t say more. It just meant too much to me: “I’ll write no more of this, and I hope you’ll understand if I do not care to speak of it. As Seneca says, “Light griefs are loquacious, but the great are dumb.” There was grief in this book, but there was so much more besides.

March 30, 2018