Published in 2008, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, written as a series of
letters between the main character, Juliet Ashton, and other
characters in the book, gives a picture of Guernsey during, and
immediately after, the German Occupation of World War II. It is a
delightful book which, like an open window on a spring day, manages
to fill the reader with new, fresh perspectives on ordinary everyday
things. The characters are all unique individuals,
and it is easy to fall in love with most of them.
However, in spite of all the light-heartedness, there is also a more
sombre thread running through the story. This thread - the actual
occupation of the islands - is, in many ways, the backbone of the
story inasmuch as it is always there, even if the optimism and the
courage of
the islanders do much to hide it. Although the idea was conceived by Mary Ann Shaffer, she became very ill before she could finish the book, and she asked her niece Annie Barrows to help her. Unfortunately, Mary Ann died a few months before the book was actually published. This is definitely a book worth reading.