Review of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Book on CD read by Paul Biehmer, Susan Duerden, Rosalyn Landor, John Lee, and Juliety Mills

This book was recommended to me; I would never have picked it myself because of the title, it is just too strange. Then when I found out it is written in the form of letters, that too was a turn off for me. But I was willing to give the audiobook a try and am I glad I did. This recording is done in multiple voices, which make it even more of a treat!

The story takes place right after WW2 and follows a new author’s efforts to promote her book. When she receives a letter from a man she never met who lives on the British island of Guernsey, she begins to correspond with him, and the other island residents. That’s how she finds out about the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which was started by accident one night to protect the islanders from a German curfew order. As Juliet reads letters from them about the story of the German occupation, she feels she must visit the island to meet these people, and when she does their stories will pull you in and make you wish you could be part of their family. The characters are finely drawn and so real I could almost reach out and touch them. The war story they tell makes history come alive, brutal and horrific, but filled with acts of courage and love. I highly recommend this book. Listen to it if you can, but read it if not.

Margaret Borchers