Archive for June 28, 2011
THE SOLDIER’S WIFE by Margaret Leroy
The quotation shows Margaret Leroy at her best, describing the ordinary routines of everyday life, in a strongly realized setting, and an acute emotional sensitivity. The place is Guernsey, one of the British Channel Islands nestling off the French coast between the arms of Normandy and Brittany. The time is 1940, when the islands came under German occupation, after being more or less abandoned by the British as indefensible. The sadness comes from the fact that man of this little farm has been one of the few inhabitants killed in the bombing that preceded the invasion. One of the very few, actually…
June 28, 2011
· 
Judi Clark · 
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Tags: 2011 PB Release, Contemporary, Historical, War Story · Posted in: Life Choices, Morality, Motherhood, Real Event Fiction, Time Period Fiction, United Kingdom, War
CHILDREN AND FIRE by Ursula Hegi
In her new novel, CHILDREN AND FIRE, Ursula Hegi tells the story of Thekla Jansen, a teacher in the fictional German village of Burgdorf, familiar to readers of the author’s previous novels. Taking for the most part the perspective of her heroine, Hegi explores, from the inside out so to say, the emotional confusion and moral dilemmas that Germans were confronted with after the Nazis’ rise to power. The author sets the historical stage effectively, and while alluding to pivotal events, she focuses her attention on one specific day in February 1934, a day that, while starting off like any other, ends with the Burgdorf residents shocked, emotionally scarred and deeply divided…
June 28, 2011
· Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: 1930s, Contemporary, Historical, War Story · Posted in: Germany, Reading Guide, Real Event Fiction, Time Period Fiction, World Literature
