The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Genre: Fiction

I gave this book ****

This is the story of Juliette Ashton, who in 1945 publishes her second book, a collection of columns called Izzy Bickerstaff Goes to War, a funny satire of London during World War II. Juliette is on the hunt for another book idea and randomly receives a letter from Dawsey Adams, a resident of Guernsey Island (a small island located in the English Chanel between England and France), who has found one of her books with her name and notes inside and is reaching out to ask if she knows of more books about the subject matter. Dawsey explains that he and his friends of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society are desperate for books as the Nazis, who occupied the island during the war, either confiscated or burned books already on the island when they arrived. With that, Juliette and Dawsey begin exchanging letters through which Juliette learns about the residents of Guernsey and how the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was formed. Juliette decides to write her new book about the island and its residents. This story is written entirely through letters, journals and telegrams.

This is the kind of book that makes me so very, very happy! This is my second time reading it, and I fell in love all over again. It’s written using the kind of correspondence people used to send before the internet, when words were important because they were the only tool you had with which to express yourself (think no emojis or pictures). Letter writing is an art form and Shaffer and Barrows do a great job demonstrating that. I also love that Juliette herself loves and appreciates books, but has a sense of humor about it. She says in a letter to Dawsey, “…So far my only thought is that reading keeps you from going gaga!” I couldn’t agree with her more! I really like the description of the meetings of the Literary Society too. They don’t all read one book and discuss it, they each choose their own book and then present it to the members of the society. What a fun idea! If you know me, you know that I am not a romance novel kind of a girl. But I love love and I love reading about love. But love without context and sub-context can be shallow. This is a love story I can stand behind: history, culture, new places, funny characters, this book has got it all! The only bad thing I can say is that Isola’s (one of the members of the Literary Society) journal entry, which leads to the fairy tale ending, was a little hokey. But otherwise, I would highly recommend this book. I think this may be another book to go on my very small book shelf (see my Tiny Beautiful Things review).