Helpful Score: 2
This book, set during WWII in England was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2010. This is a UK prize for originality in writing for women authors. Knowing this, I plunged into the book, expecting greatness. What I found instead was mediocrity. The book did indeed follow a young girl, evacuated from London at the beginning of WWII, to the Yorkshire countryside. We also learned about her mother who was left in London, as well as all the folks at the country estate where little Anna lived during the war years. What we DIDN'T hear much about was WWII. That was a huge disappointment for me, as I really love reading/learning about life on the homefront during that devastating war. Essentially, this is a predictable romance novel - NOT what I was hoping for and certainly NOT what I was expecting. If you like romance set in the 1940's then this could be a book for you. Frankly, I was shocked that this book was actually shortlisted for the Orange Prize. In my humble opinion, it doesn't deserve the accolade.
Helpful Score: 1
This book is about some wonderful characters. The character development of Anna, Thomas, Elizabeth and Ruth take a while to materialize. Once the author has them developed the story takes off and is hard to put down.
Helpful Score: 1
This is a moving book written with great clarity in a pleasantly straightforward style from the point of view of a traditional omniscient narrator. The centre of the story, if not the central character, is Thomas Ashton, a wheelchair-bound former diplomat around whom spin several female characters and their lovers. All have slightly different views and experiences of love. Most of the action takes place during the Second World War, when Ashton's stately family home in Yorkshire is turned into a boarding school for London evacuees. The atmosphere of the era and the setting is evocative and believable.
If I had one criticism of the book it would be that the final section compresses too tightly the long period from the wartime events to the final denouement, and I would have enjoyed hearing more about the character on whom this part of the book focusses. That comment, though, is really praise for the book's intelligence and sensitivity because it is very rare indeed that I find a modern novel too short.
If I had one criticism of the book it would be that the final section compresses too tightly the long period from the wartime events to the final denouement, and I would have enjoyed hearing more about the character on whom this part of the book focusses. That comment, though, is really praise for the book's intelligence and sensitivity because it is very rare indeed that I find a modern novel too short.
