The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Greetings from Saskatchewan! I had planned to offer you a profile of reader Jayne Entwistle today, but she'll have to wait until tomorrow. Instead, I'm going to tell you about the awesome audiobook I listed to yesterday on my 13 hour drive to the lake. I was a bit pressed for time in the week before I left so I browsed through some of the Books on CD at one of the libraries I was working at. Hoping for a gem I grabbed a bunch and ended up listening to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and her niece, Annie Barrows. When I started I literally knew nothing about it. The book has been out for a few years and while I was always intrigued by the title, I never checked into what it was about. Yesterday I plopped it into the CD Player in the car and started my drive. Almost instantly I felt like I'd won the audiobook lottery! I also now desperately want to visit (and possibly get lost in) Guernsey!

Set in 1946, the story is told completely in correspondence with each reader voicing the letters written by that particular character. I was really impressed with how the authors managed to tell the complexities of the story without allowing it to become overly dramatic or emotional. The story looks at the Island of Guernsey, in the Channel Islands, and talks about the effects the 5-year German occupation of the island in WWII had on the island residents. The islands were completely cut off from the rest of the world and starvation, lack of fuel, and the occasional cruelty (and compassion) of the German soldiers had a dramatic impact on the community even after the war had ended.

Shortly after the end of the war, Juliet Ashton, a young writer who is enjoying the success of her first book, receives a letter from a stranger from Guernsey. He had obtained a book she used to own at a used bookstore and would like more books by the author or about him. This begins a long correspondence between Juliet and many of the island's inhabitants who had formed a literary society as a way to rebel against the Germans and maintain a sense of normalcy.

I loved this book! I was crying at parts and laughing out loud at many others. I can't recommend it enough! Author Mary Ann Shaffer, a former librarian, editor, and bookseller, passed away in February of 2008. This was her only novel and she never lived to see it published. She wrote it with her niece, Annie Barrows, who is a noted children's author. Learning the author had passed away made the story even more poignant. This is the kind of book I would love to write someday.

I was leery about listening to a book read by a collection of readers because  I was worried it would be read like dialogue. Instead, each reader reads the letters written by their character – perfect! Paul Boehmer I had listened to already in The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel and his distinct voice was perfect here. The other readers, Susan Duerden, Rosalyn Landor, John Lee, and Juliet Mills, were all new to me and absolutely excellent.

I listened to the CD version but I discovered today that it is available for download through Library to Go. You can listen to an audio sample there or at the Random House Audio link below.

Listen Up!

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, (8 hrs, 7 mins), Random House Audio, (2008)