BookBurgh: "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" Review

I’ve just finished reading “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. A friend recommended this book to me sometime last year, but my reading list being what it is, I didn’t get around to it. I’m sorry I waited so long because I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The novel tells the story of Juliet Ashton, a writer in her thirties, who wrote light-hearted stories during WWII and is searching for an idea for a new book. Her inspiration comes from a letter from one Dawsey Adams, a resident of the island of Guernsey in the English Channel, who writes her about Charles Lamb and life on Guernsey during the German Occupation. In this way, Juliet learns of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

The novel is written entirely in an epistolary style, which lends itself well to the story. Juliet corresponds with her new friends in Guernsey learning their individual stories and hardships. The cliché goes that one must “read between the lines,” and this holds true for this book. The reader must pay attention to the details provided and can make assumptions about details that are left out as well.

Light-hearted and romantic, yet serious and thought-provoking, this book is one of the best I have read in recent memory. There are hundreds if not thousands of novels with post-WWII themes, but this one is written in such a way as to capture the reader’s attention and not let go. I recommend it for history buffs, hopeless romantics and lovers of literature everywhere.