The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a novel you won't soon forget. The story, which is told entirely through the letters exchanged among the characters, begins in post-WWII London where writer Juliet Ashton receives a note from a stranger living on Guernsey, a British island occupied by Nazi Germany during the war. The sender, Dawsey Adams, tells Juliet of his love of Charles Lamb, and asks if she would send him more reading material -- there are no bookstores left on Guernsey. Slowly, a friendship develops between the pair, and Dawsey begins to tell Juliet about the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a secret wartime reading club that developed under the Germans' noses. Other members of the Society being to write to Juliet, and soon she decides to visit the island to collect their stories for her next book.

Once on Guernsey, Juliet is overwhelmed by the kindness of her new friends, their haunting stories of their life during the Occupation, and her conflicted feelings for two different men. It took me a while to adjust to the book's epistolary style, but once I did, I was happily surprised at what I found.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (Random House, May 2009)