REVIEW: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

I knew right off I would enjoy this book when I read reviews saying it was reminiscent of Helene Hanff’s classic 84 Charing Cross Road, a series of letters between a New York City book lover and a clerk in the London bookstore. A book I loved so much that when in London I sought out its location where only a plaque on a building gives any clue to the former site.

Writer Juliet Ashton is stumped. She has no idea as to the subject of her next book. She is tired of the light-hearted items she wrote to keep her fellow English subjects amused during the war and wants to write something with a bit more substance.

Then she receives a letter from Dawsey Adams, a farmer from Guernsey in the Channel Islands. Dawsey has found her name in a Charles Lamb book she once owned and is wondering if she can help him find more books by the author.

As Juliet exchanges letter with Dawsey and eventually other residents of Guernsey who are members of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – a group formed in haste as an alibi to the Germans who occupied the island during World War II. As she continues to receive letters, these people whose lives were so changed so drastically during the German Occupation captivate her. She decides a visit to Guernsey is in order. She also is intrigued about the stories of the now-missing Elizabeth McKenna, a much-loved and important member of the community. The letters also include correspondence between Juliet and her publisher as well as her best friend, a young wife and mother in Scotland which helps to lend depth to the novel as she is able to give her first-hand observations of the islanders she has met.

You’ll laugh, cry, and be absolutely charmed by this wonderful epistolary novel. If you love books you’ll enjoy reading Juliet’s observations of booksellers and readers and why she broke up with her fiancé on the eve of her wedding.

Sales of books by and about Charles Lamb are sure to increase as readers of this novel will want to know more about the book that brought Juliet to Guernsey; sales of Jane Austen books as well as those by the Bronte sisters may also be affected.

The Guernsey tourism industry is also sure to benefit – I certainly would love to book a trip to see this quaint island, out of the way of the usual UK tourist trade.

Sadly, we won’t have any more books from Ms. Shaffer who passed away earlier this year; but perhaps there’s a hidden manuscript somewhere. We can only hope. As it is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is going on top of my reading favorites for the year. Highly recommended.