The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

I really loved both the book by Mary Ann Shaffer (published posthumously by her niece Annie Barrows) and the movie based upon the book, and only realized when writing a previous post (The Jane Austen Society) that I had somehow failed to write a blog post for this treasure. It is 1946, the aftermath of WWII in London when so much is still rubble, including the flat of writer and newspaper columnist Juliet Ashton. It is while she is sorting through both the physical and psychological rubble of her life that two significant events happen. She becomes engaged to a wealthy American publisher and she receives a letter from a man on the island of Guernsey, pig farmer Dawsey Adams, who found her name on the flyleaf of a book of essays by Charles Lamb. He is inquiring if she knows of other books by that author. Guernsey was occupied by the Nazis during the war and through her correspondence with Dawsey, Juliet learns of a group of friends who regularly gathered in secret to read literature to one another. She is compelled by their story and is sure this would make a wonderful next novel to write. Only the residents of Guernsey are not so sure they want the world to be privy to their private lives. This is an homage to letter writing and those who love books. There is an elegant description of the book's storyline and a glowing review in The Guardian. Strong reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, The Christian Science Monitor, among others.