The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (256 pages) is an international bestseller so no doubt someone else is the group has probably read it and I’d be interested in your thoughts.

The story is that of London-based Juliet Barrows who is trying to write a new book but has writer’s block. She unexpectedly recieves a letter from a young man in Guernsey who has somehow come across a second-hand book with Juliet’s address in it. The two start a correspondance and Juliet soon finds herself fascinated by the ‘Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society’ that he talks about, a society that was created as a ruse to distract German soldiers during the occupation of Guernsey, when islanders missed their curfew. Juliet soon begins recieving and replying to other society members and becomes attached to them. This makes up the first half of the book. The second half of the ook has Juliet visiting the island and writing home to her publisher and friends.
It is a nice gentle story and the society is filled with quirky little characters. I preferred the first half of the book because it felt like each letter told a little story about Guernsey during the occupation. The second half however was much more Juliet-centric and, to be honest, I didn’t find her that compelling as a character or narrator. I was mostly rushing through this part just to finish the book – I also found my eyes wandering ahead, then obviously I’d go back and read the inbetween bits, so maybe there weren’t as many twists for me as there were meant to be.

@internrachel @julia1