Dear Mrs Bird by A.J. Pearce

Emmeline Lake and her best friend, Bunty, live in London during World War Two. Emmy gets a job at a magazine, where she helps Mrs Bird with her advice column, but when Mrs Bird refuses to address any of the significant problems, Emmy takes matters into her own hands. This is a gentle, sweet, amusing, and moving story, addressing the harsh realities of life in London during the war. For fans of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, it is uplifting, quietly romantic, with a focus on kindness and friendship.

The women of Troy by Pat Barker

The Women of Troy follows on from The Silence of the Girls. Troy has fallen, and Briseis, pregnant with Achilles’ child moves around the camp of the Greek warriors while they wait for wind for the journey home. I think I don’t know enough Greek mythology to appreciate the detail here; though beautiful, and haunting, in truth I found it a little dull.

Exit west by Mohsin Hamid

Saeed and Nadia live in an un-named city, and fall in love as it falls to militant rule. As the world becomes more and more full of unrest, doors begin to appear that take people from their unstable homelands to safer places, and Saeed and Nadia escape to Mykonos, London, and California. The elements of magical realism, are only elements; it is a story of a relationship, of connection, of how migration, in all its forms, changes places and people, of the tenacity of the human spirit. The writing is beautiful, I often wanted to read it aloud, and while I found that the middle section dragged significantly, there were also moments of real insight and clarity.

The betrayal by Kate Furnivall

The story is set in France just before WWII and centres on twin sisters Romaine and Florence. Although very different from each other they share a strong bond. There are many betrayals in the story – and enough plot to keep me interested. Everything is wrapped up in the end with an unexpected twist. It is the wooden characterization that let me down – the emotions just did not connect with me.

The Swallows’ flight by Hilary McKay

This is a companion novel to the lovely, middle grade WWI story, The Skylarks’ War. We follow a number of characters, children, adults, a dog, English and German, in the years leading up to and through WWII. It is, I think, a little less dark than the first; a moving, thought-provoking look at the impact of both world wars on individuals, families, communities and countries. Sweet, gently sad, funny, and hopeful.

A single thread by Tracy Chevalier

In 1932 Violet Speedwell is known as a ‘surplus woman’. She lost a brother and a fiancé during the Great War, and at 38 is unlikely to marry. Living with her cantankerous mother is becoming unbearable, so she moves to Winchester on her own. Life for a single woman is hard, but she finds solace in a group of broderers – women who embroider items for the cathedral. Between the wars in the U.K. is one of my favourite settings, and I really enjoyed a detailed look at life for those women who missed their chance for the expected married life. Well-researched, but not dry, with a great sense of time and place, and endearing characters.

Small acts of defiance by Michelle Wright

After a family tragedy Lucie and her mother have to return to Paris to live with her uncle at the beginning of Nazi occupation of the city. It covers the remaining war years through Lucie’s eyes as we see Paris change under occupation, the courage of the resistance, the horror of the Nazis anti-Jewish measures, the survival of the citizens. The war changed everyone. I enjoyed the second half of the book so much more as Lucie understood so much more about the situation, the first half seemed rushed, but a solid read from this debut author.

When the doves disappeared by Sofi Oksanen

Set in Estonia in the 1940s and 1960s, When the Doves Disappeared looks at Estonian life under different regimes; Communist, Nazi, and Communist again. It’s about survival, betrayal, love for people and place. I know very little of Eastern Europe during this time period, and found those details fascinating. There were some mysteries revealed in the final pages that I found satisfying, but a lot of the chapters really dragged, and with name changes and the constant moving between time periods, I sometimes lost track of what was going on. I am glad to have read it, though I found it only occasionally enthralling.

The old lie by Claire G. Coleman

Claire G. Coleman has, again, written an engrossing work of speculative fiction that cleverly, and powerfully brings home the impact of Australian history. Not an easy read, it is awash with bodily fluids and stench, and there are long, detailed battle scenes, but the emotion is gut-wrenching, and it is intensely thought provoking about race, gender, war, and power. The WWI and Wilfred Owen references appealed specifically to me, and I love how Coleman sets up familiar situations and then turns you upside-down.

A tale of two cities by Charles Dickens

It was wasted on me at school, but I have finally returned to this book, having loved so many others by Dickens as an adult. Beginning and ending with some of literature’s most well known sentences, it is the story of the French Revolution, told though the connections of one family. It is dark, and violent, as it must be, and though it has far fewer ridiculously named characters than I expect from Dickens, the characters are deeply endearing. It is about social justice, love, loyalty, sacrifice, and redemption, and points so beautifully to the hope of the Great Story. There were tears. I listened to the audiobook, skilfully and movingly read by Anton Lesser.