The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Dial Press Trade Paper Paperbacks/Random House
2008

Reviewed by Katie Dodds            

January 12, 1946 marks the date Juliet Ashton receives a letter from Dawsey Adams, a pig farmer who lives in St. Martin’s Parish on the island of Guernsey off the coast of England, whereby he relays he got her name from the inside of a favorite book he read.  “Could she find more books by Charles Lamb as even though the Germans are gone now, there aren’t any bookshops left on Guernsey.”  Intrigued, Juliet, an author herself living in London, begins a remarkable correspondence with delightful characters who share with her what life was like during the German Occupation.  Eben Ramsey tells of the sorrow when parents decided to send their children to safer lands not knowing when they would see them, and Amelia Maugery vividly describes desperate food shortages and rigid rules of their invaders.  The origin of the name of the literary society will have to be found out by readers, but the society got its members through the terrible circumstances of the war with their witty humor and caring deeply for each other.  Eventually, Juliet visits Guernsey and vows to write a book on the life of Elizabeth, the pioneer of the society who Juliet has never met but feels a kinship.  Each letter brings the reader closer to a plot woven in the uniqueness of each character  brought together from their shared experience.  As Juliet discovers love, family and her inspiration to write, she relays to her editor, “The story is about to begin, and every day will be a new piece of the plot.”