Mary Ann Shaffer
The Guernsey literary and potato peel pie society
€ 8.50
The story begins when Guernsey pig farmer Dawsey Adams finds London writer Juliet Ashton’s name in a used book and a correspondence between the two ensues. What follows is a series of letters from Dawsey’s neighbors that cover a nine month post World War II period. Juliet is assigned to write a piece for the London Times’ literary magazine which after her visit to the island, will culminate in a book. While such an epistle-like - delivery might be bogged down or boring, the authors do a remarkable job of inserting humor and insight into the easily flowing text. The cold realities of war and rationing are treated with sensitivity and while somber are never to the point of being maudlin. Desperate times calling for desperate measures, a small group of islanders resort to deceit and intrigue which inadvertently forges valuable friendships and an equally valued book club. During the Nazi occupation these pig farmers have had their pigs commandeered. After six months of eating a monotonous diet of potatoes and turnips, their collective minds focused on the pigs. To everyone’s delight, Marguerite Amelia hid a pig and held a feast in her house, inviting the various people who would then be united in a lie to cover their deed. When caught in the act of leaving the dinner, Elizabeth, one of the diners, told the Germans they had been discussing a book of Elizabeth and German Gardens. The society was born out of necessity, but grew into something each savored as much as the recipe for Potato Peel Pie served at their meetings.

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