Dangerous Waters

Finished April 3
Dangerous Waters by Anne Allen

Jeanne Le Page has returned to Guernsey after more than a decade away. She left shortly after her parents were killed and she was injured when she was twelve. Her memories of that night haven't returned, but the sight of the port from the ferry makes her nauseous. She lived with her aunt in England and went to university there and has been working as a freelance journalist since then. But a few months ago her grandmother passed away, and Jeanne must deal with the estate, including her grandmother's house.
She is met by her parents' good friends and stays with them for a couple of days until she feels that she can stay in the house while she goes through the contents, and decides what needs to be done in terms of repairs. She connects with old schoolfriends and other young people her age, and begins to consider staying in Guernsey for good. There is a young man very interested in starting a relationship with her, but she isn't sure, and since she is coming off a recent breakup, she is taking it slowly.
As her memory starts to return and she talks to the police who still have an open investigation on the deaths of her parents, and the attack on her, she starts be in danger again.
I liked Jeanne and I liked the descriptions of Guernsey and the house that she inherited. The plot was interesting too, with a few twists and turns.
A good read.

The Book of Ebenezer Le Page

Finished February 11
The Book of Ebenezer Le Page by G.B. Edwards
This book is the only novel written by this author and, as John Fowles tells us in the introduction, Edwards went to great lengths to minimize the information available about himself.
He was born on the island of Guernsey and lived there until joining the Royal Guernsey Light Infantry in 1917. He appears to have longed for the land of his birth even though he never lived there again.
This novel follows a character, Ebenezer Le Page, who was born on Guernsey in 1890 and stayed there for the rest of his life. It takes the form of a diary and follows his life from a young man through World War I, loss of friends and family, World War II and the German Occupation, the privations that came with that, and reaction to the growing dependence on tourism. The character reads true and we see his feelings, his joys and regrets, his friends and his family, his stubbornness and his loyalties.
I was lent this book by my mother-in-law and had heard good things about it elsewhere. I absolutely enjoyed it and the chance to live vicariously in Ebenezer's shoes for a short while. This is a great novel about a place and a life lived there.

Feel Good Novel

Finished September 30
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
This was a lovely book that gripped me quite early. The book is written as a series of letters between the main character, Juliet Ashton, a writer and her various friends and acquaintences and sometimes between them. In that sense it reminded me of another favourite book "84 Charing Cross Road".
After World War II, Juliet does a round of events to market her recent book, a collection of humorous columns written during the war under a pen name. She is struggling to come up with a new book idea.
She gets a letter from a man in Guernsey who had come across her name on the flyleaf of a book he'd bought in a secondhand store, and asked for her help in locating some other books. As she begins to correspond with him, and then with other members of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, she grows more and more interested, and finally travels to Guernsey to meet them all and see if this might be the book idea that she is looking for.
The good humour, friendliness, and feeling of humanity she gets from this group who found unique coping strategies to survive the German occupation is heartwarming.
One of my parents friends is from the Channel Islands and this book has awakened an interest in her experiences, which I shall follow up.