A London Year

Finished November 9

A London Year: 365 Days of City Life in Diaries, Journals and Letters compiled by Travis Elborough and Nick Rennison

This collection is fascinating, giving glimpses of life in London from the 16th century to the 21st century. The collection includes journalists, actors, nobility, royalty, writers, poets, musicians and many more. The subjects range widely from food and housing to entertainments, money, sex, friendship, society, geography, architecture, and politics. The length also varies, from single sentences to multiple pages, although most are a paragraph or two. 

The book is arranged by the days of the year, with some days having only one entry while others have several. I enjoyed trying to guess the rough year of the entry by the subject and language before looking to see it. I tended to read a month in a sitting, thinking about the time of year, and researching a little if I wasn't familiar with the diarist or writer. The compilers included occasional notes to explain some references to people or events they thought needed additional explanation.

A fascinating look at a city through the eyes of residents and visitors.

We Are All Equally Far From Love

Finished May 19

We Are All Equally Far From Love by Adania Shibli, translated by Paul Starkey

This collection of stories, loosely connected to each other, feels curiously dispassionate for stories that are about love. Most of the characters are referred to without names, so as a reader, I wasn't always sure if the characters were the same in different stories. There is a woman who writes letters to a man, gradually developing feelings for him, and then the letters stop coming. 

There is a young girl, removed from school by her father and placed in the post office, where one of her tasks is to read letters for political reasons, but she finds a particular collection of letters interesting and useful for a different reason. There is a woman who finds herself falling for a man who is performing a service for her. There is a man who dreams of a woman and then sees her sitting on a bench and debates whether or not to talk to her. There is a man who drives away after being told a relationship is finished, not sure how he will move forward. There is woman who worries about a man who she ended a relationship with, and whether he will take actions against her. There is a daughter who overhears her father talking tenderly to a woman who isn't her mother, which results in a variety of actions she takes from self-love to familial love to love with a stranger. The final story reads almost like thoughts of the writer about her own stories. An unusual collection. 

Keep Me Posted

Finished July 21

Keep Me Posted by Lisa Beazley

This novel is about a woman in New York City, Cassie, who begins a physical correspondence with her older sister Sid, who lives in Singapore. It begins as a thoughtful way for the two to keep in touch, as they live very different lives. Sid was inspired by old letters she found when visiting her grandparents and issued a challenge to her sister to reconnect through physical letters.

Sid had a child when she was quite young, River, and he is now an adult, taking a gap year before he goes on to further education. She has remarried a man who leads a busy life as an international businessman, and they have a young child Lulu. 

Cassie is married to Leo, and has twin toddlers, Quinn and Joey. They live in a small apartment in New York City. Cassie is vaguely dissatisfied with her life. She finds the apartment confining, and even though she and her sons go out often, the hassles of getting around are tiresome. 

The letter writing experiment goes well, and Cassie decides to keep copies of them online in a private blog, just for her to look back on. When a technical glitch makes the blog public, Cassie isn't aware until she realizes that they've gone viral and become the center of a social media discussion. Some of what they've written is very personal, and Cassie has to try to stem the leak, and find ways to tell the two people most important to her, Leo and Sid. 

I enjoyed the sisters relationship, and how they managed to keep the connection despite the distance between them. I also found it interesting to see how they dealt with the leak and made it part of the conversation in a wider, more inclusive way. 

Meet Me at the Museum

Finished April 30

Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson

This delightful novel is told entirely through letters between two people. In East Anglia in England, Tina Hopgood is the wife of a farmer, who she married decades ago when she got pregnant. Both parents thought it was for the best. Tina had had other plans, but she agreed. She and her husband have three grown children, all of them also working at the farm, which has many side projects, like renting out hay bales and having vacation cottages. After her childhood friend Bella has died, she is remembering her youth and an interaction with a professor from Denmark about the Tollund Man. She writes a letter to him at the Silkeborg Museum where she talks about the interaction, her thoughts about the Tollund Man who she intended to visit years ago but didn't, and about her thoughts around aging.

The professor she writes to is long dead, but a curator at the Museum, Anders Larsen writes back, trying to answer questions that he thinks are implied in her letter. And so the conversation begins. 

The letters cover around a year and a half in time, but cover so much more as the two share their histories, their thoughts on life, ask advice over issues that have presented themselves, and become a friendship. 

Both have suffered loss, and are faced with changes through the lives of their children. Their conversation also leads them to examine their own lives and decide whether they want to change things for themselves as well. 

This is a lovely novel, with beautiful writing, and many emotional moments. It is a novel that talks about life, love, selflessness, and so much more. Definitely one of my favourite books of the year. 

I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home

Finished February 3

I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home by Lorrie Moore

This is a very unusual book. It is part letters from one sister to another, dating from the years shortly after the U.S. Civil War, and part modern day tale of a Chicago-area teacher struggling with loss. 

The book begins with a undated letter from Elizabeth to her unnamed sister. It tells of everyday events, include the nature that she witnesses, the male lodger in her home that is wooing her, the state of her finances, and visits from the local minister. She also invokes shared memories of earlier points in their lives. From the contents, and the words used, the reader can tell that this is a letter from a past time, and that it is not too long after the end of the Civil War. 

The next section is set in the present, as Finn moves through New York City to visit his older brother Max, who is in a hospice. We see not only what is happening as Finn sees it, but also his thoughts, which range from issues with his landlady and interactions with his Airbnb host to things he is reminded of by the sights and smells of the world around him. 

Once he gets in to his brother's room, the interaction between the brothers is also mingled with Finn's thoughts and observations. 

When Finn is called away by another crisis the book takes a turn for the surreal, and we begin to be unsure what is real and what isn't. We see Finn's personal issues, including the complicated love he has for Lily a woman he lived with for many years. 

Interspersed with Finn's story are the letters, and we eventually see the connections between them and his story. 

This is a novel of loss, of death, of how people deal with losing someone they care about, and about the uncertainty of life itself. 

Letters to a Young Poet with the Letters to Rilke from the "Young Poet"

Finished June 28

Letters to a Young Poet with the Letters to Rilke from the "Young Poet" by Rainer Maria Rilke and Franz Xaver Kappus, translated by Damion Searls

This is a classic, paired with the other half of the correspondence that it was part of. The letters are written over several months and were an interlude in both the writer's lives, with no significant connection between them beyond this. One thing that struck me was the relative closeness in age between the two, although Rilke had already launched his career. Rilke's writing, even in this private correspondence (never published until after his death) was much superior to that of Kappus. Kappus definitely sounds like a fanboy, and his writing includes a lot of fawning and thanking. 

Rilke is patient, thoughtful, and diplomatic. His writing stands the test of time, and in some cases was ahead of its time. One selection from Letter Seven is a great example:

The girl, the woman, in this new manner of unfolding specific to her, will only transitionally imitate masculine ways of being, both good and bad, and follow the same male callings, do the same male jobs. After the uncertainty of these transitions has passed, it will be clear that women have passed through this multiplicity of (often ridiculous) disguises only to purify their own essential nature from the distorting influences of the other sex. Women, in whom life dwells and tarries more immediately, more intimately, more fruitfully, must surely have become fundamentally more mature, more human human beings, than the easygoing man, not pulled down beneath the surface of life by any difficult bodily fruit, who overhastily, arrogantly undervalues what he thinks he loves. This humanity of the woman, carried to term through pain and humiliation, will come to light once her outward position has changed and she has thrown off her conventional status as "only a woman'; the men today who don't see this coming will be baffled and shattered. Someday (and trustworthy portents of this are already speaking and shining, especially in the countries of the north) -- someday there will be a girl, a woman, who name no longer signifies merely the opposite of male but something in and of itself, existing, alive, implying no limit and requiring no complement--; the female human being.

As you can see from this passage, the letters convey not just advice particular to the recipient, but general life advice and commentary that will help any young person with their struggles, and put things in perspective for them. I can see why Rilke's letters are a classic.

Juliet's Answer

Finished April 8

Juliet's Answer by Glenn Dixon

This memoir captures just over a year in Dixon's life, one where he made choices that changed the trajectory of his life. He had heard about an organization in Verona, Italy called the Club Di Giulietta, that had taken on the task of responding to the thousands of letters sent to Juliet. The majority of these letters were about relationships, and they arrived in many different languages from all over the world. 

Glenn had been teaching Shakespeare to high school students in Canada for two decades and had managed to get permission to view the near-perfect second quarto of the play Romeo and Juliet at the British Library on his way to Verona. He had arranged to volunteer during the summer holidays at the Club, answering some of the letters. 

Glenn's story gives background on his life, both as a teacher and his personal life, falling for a woman who only sees him as a friend. 

Near the end of his summer in Verona, he writes his own letter to Juliet, looking for guidance on approaching this woman one more time given that they are both single and unattached. 

The book takes us through the next year of his life, showing him teaching the play Romeo and Juliet to a high school class, with the interactions between him and the students, and how their personalities come into their reactions to the play. It also shows him making the decision to start a new phase of his life, and to begin that, at the end of the school year, he arranges to return to Verona and volunteer as one of "Juliet's secretaries" once again.

There is a simple map of Verona showing the points of interest related to his time there, and a section of photographs as well. 

This is a story of reflection and self examination as Glenn evaluates his life and makes the choice to move in a new direction. 

He gives interesting information on Verona and its relationship to the story of Romeo and Juliet and the other people he meets that run or are involved with the Club. I also found his teaching with the students as they worked their way through the play very interesting, taking their time and really thinking about what was happening and what it meant. 

Foreign Correspondence

Finished December 10

Foreign Correspondence: A Pen Pal's Journey from Down Under to All Over by Geraldine Brooks

I just love anything I've read by Geraldine Brooks, fiction or nonfiction. This book goes back to her childhood and looks at her years growing up in Australia, her relationship with her parents and some of their history, and her early pen pals. 

Her first pen pal was just across town, a girl from a slightly higher social bracket than her own, but eager to connect, compare and share some commonalities. Her next addition to her pen pal list was a girl in the United States, the country her father grew up in, and they kept up a correspondence for many years. She then added two pen pals in Israel, the first was an Arab Christian and the second a Jew, both boys, and Geraldine imagined lives for them based on her knowledge and adolescent dreams. Through one of her school teachers, she also got a pen pal in France. She'd been hoping for Paris, but ended up with a girl her age in Languedoc. 

We then see how her life grew and changed as she became a journalist, travelled widely and lived in and reported from many different places. She met an American man, who was Jewish, converted and married him. Having already read her collection of essays from her posting in the Middle East, Nine Parts of Desire, I was aware of some of this. We also see how she settles down in the United States.

We see how her life changed in many ways, and her family members as well.

She decided at some point to follow up with her various pen pals to see where they now were, and what their lives were like. She already knew about Joanie, her American correspondent and her sad end, but she connected with Joanie's family, particularly her mother, and they became quite close. Her two pen pals in the Middle East were vastly different than her imaginings. The Jewish man, named Cohen, had not enjoyed his time in the military, and was happily married and living a quiet life. Her Arab pal, Mishal, lived with his family in Jerusalem and moved between communities in his skilled tradesman work. He was definitely more welcoming and friendly and took the time to show her around the area, and kept in contact following the reconnection. I really liked him and his attitude. 

Her pen pal in France also lived a different life than Geraldine imagined, staying in the town she grew up, although marrying a man who came from elsewhere. She lived a busy life, but a wasn't curious about the world beyond. 

Her reconnection with her Australian pen pal was interesting as Nell has also moved to the States and created a life for herself. She done her own travelling, as many Australians do, and was enjoying her life and thinking about her next personal reinvention. 

I really enjoyed this book, and it made me think about a pen pal I had as a tween, a girl who lived in Norway. I wonder what she's up to now. 

Ambulance No. 10

Finished October 14

Ambulance No. 10: Personal Letters from the Front by Leslie Buswell

This collection of letters from the young Buswell seems to date from 1914, although no year is indicated on the letters themselves or referred to specifically in the preface or introduction, and encompass a few months. There is no indication of the recipient of the letters, although it would seem that it was a close friend back in the United States. Buswell served as an ambulance driver, part of a group of Americans who served in this way before the United States joined the war. The letters were originally compiled and published for private distribution in September 1915 before coming out in this book in August 1916. The book's preface and introduction were from the original privately distributed version, but there includes an editor's note about the book's publication, and both a facsimile and the text of a document from the French government giving permission for publication in America. Likely, this was given to encourage the U.S. to join the war. There is also a picture of Leslie Buswell in his ambulance uniform. A footnote to the preface indicates that Buswell himself also gave permission for their publication.

The letters begin on June 17th, when Buswell arrived at his ambulance station for the first time. He was stationed at Pont-à-Mousson, near Nancy. Near him are a railway line, and three rivers, the Marne, the Meuse, and the Moselle. The book includes simple drawings that appeared in the original letters as well as photographs taken by the writer of the area, activities, and people. 

Even when he is describing quite horrific situations or experiences, he maintains a calm writing style, and sometimes shows a bit of humour. 

Some of the experiences are quite amazing, such as how they could see the German line most of the time, and often were visible to the Germans while undertaking their duties or travelling around, yet were often not fired on despite this observation. Buswell describes the house he shared with another driver, the schedule they were put on, where they had a rotation that include overnight shifts, and on call shifts, and how they had to maintain their own vehicles. 

When taking injured soldiers to medical stations, there were competing priorities of getting there as quickly as possible and not making their injuries worse by travelling quickly over rough roads. Sometimes the urgent cases were dead by the time he got them to their destination and other times they still had a chance of survival with surgery. 

He makes occasional forays to the front lines, but recognizes the danger he is putting himself in by doing this unnecessarily and stops after a while. He describes the respect that the American ambulance drivers were given from the soldiers as well as any civilians still in the area. Any socialization that he did was mostly with the other drivers or the soldiers stationed nearby. 

He walks through trees and across meadows and picks flowers and notes the wildlife, from birds to animals. He sees the damage to the buildings and talks about the men he interacted with that were killed in the fighting or bombing. 

This is a very interesting book, showing the real experiences of this time 

The last entry is dated October 13th and he describes his experience of a near miss from a bomb, the following bombardment near them, the meal and music he enjoyed, a visit to abandoned trenches, and the discovery of two wooden crosses, one French, one German, indicating graves side by side in the woods. He listens to the owl hooting near by, the clock, the garden he has discovered that he goes to for solace and nourishment, reflecting on the appreciation he has for the friend he is writing to working to raise funds and awareness for this endeavor.

My Discovery of America

Finished June 30
My Discovery of America by Farley Mowat

This short book is the story of a few days in the spring of 1985 when Mowat attempted to fly to the United States for a planned book tour and speaking engagement at a private college. At the airport, he cleared customs and immigration and was waiting at his gate when an immigration agent came to him and asked him to return to the immigration area. After an interview, he was denied entry with no explanation.
He didn't just return home. He contacted his publishers, and went to their office in Toronto, and he worked with them to find out what was happening and why. It turned out that the McCarran Act, enacted in the McCarthy era to keep certain types of visitors to the United States out with no transparency was still on the books, and that under Reagan, its use have been revived. Despite being told various stories of past actions dating back to 1968, Mowat had visited the U.S. many times, including other book tours. Perhaps it was the topic of his most recent book, Sea of Slaughter, that drew new attention, but the government wasn't going into details.
There are a lot of echoes here of more recent U.S. immigration barriers and attitudes, including one immigration staffer who was on record as saying "We also exclude rapists, drug pushers and terrorists -- not just Canadians." When I read that I was reminded of Trumps remarks about Mexican immigrants.
Mowat received extensive media coverage, in Canada, the United States and internationally. He also received many letters from individual Americans, and it is this discovery that the title refers to. With the exception of three letters, every letter he received was apologetic, embarassed, or otherwise unhappy with their government's actions. It is this that he discovered, that Americans are not necessarily the government that represents them.
One can only hope that that is still true.

Lake Season

Finished February 15
Lake Season by Denise Hunter

This novel is the first book in a series at Bluebell Inn, in the town of Bluebell, North Carolina. Molly, Levi, and Grace Bennett are stunned whenever their parents are killed in a car accident. Their parents had been in the midst of plans to renovate their family home back to its early use as an inn. Grace was in her junior year in high school. Levi worked as a project manager for a construction company in San Francisco, and Molly was going into her final year of a hospitality degree, looking forward to a placement in Italy, something she'd worked hard towards, even learning Italian.
But Grace is determined to stay in Bluebell to finish high school, and so the siblings agree to take on their parents' project, finish the renovations of the inn over the winter to be ready to open for the season, and build the inn over a couple of years to make it a more appealing property for buyers.
The book then jumps ahead to near their opening time, with a young man, Adam Bradford showing up hoping for a room on the Memorial Day weekend, just in time to help Molly with the translation of some furniture kit instructions.
Adam is a writer, successful but not confident. He has chosen to write under a pseudonym to both protect his privacy and to create a safe space for his image of himself. He has chosen Bluebell as a spot for his new novel, on the advice of his mother, but is having an episode of writer's block, something he's never had until now. He only identifies himself as a researcher to Molly and her family.
At one time, the inn was used as a post office, and Molly discovers an unsent letter within the wall by the old mail slot. This sets her on a hunt for the sender and recipient, and she involves Adam as a research guide.
This had an interesting plot and I liked the characters of all three Bennett family members, and of Adam. There is a small town intimacy here, as well as a strong closeness between the siblings despite their differences.

Love Letters to Baruch: A True Canadian Love Story

Finished June 29
Love Letters to Baruch: A True Canadian Love Story by Margaret Lawrence Greene

This collection of letters includes one letter from 1936, then a series of letters beginning June 16, 1942 and going to January 21, 1943. The first letter was sent during a time the author was close to a man she cared for deeply, and this time was followed by a period of separation beginning in 1937 and ending in May 1942. As the two resume a relationship, Margaret lays bare her feelings regarding the separation and how this time led to her about to go into holy orders as a nun, and her feelings about Baruch (Benedict) who she married towards the end of the letter writing period.
This is a story of a woman, successful in her career as a journalist, and dedicated to furthering the rights of women, laying bare her feelings. She considers the religious differences, the way society would consider their relationship, and the effect on her own career and future. Her belief that women were never truly fulfilled without binding themselves to someone or something created a backlash from the feminist majority when this book was released and when her 1929 book The School of Femininity was rereleased in 1972.
This is a strong and personal correspondence that was released after the author's death with the permission of the letters' recipient.

The Red Daughter

Finished May 7
The Red Daughter by John Burnham Schwartz

This is a fictionalized biography of Svetlana Alliluyeva, the only daughter of Joseph Stalin. A lot of the story is real, but the main relationship between Svetlana and her American lawyer is not, and the lawyer here is heavily fictionalized. The author has access to a lot of documents and people that were unique as his father was the real lawyer that worked for Svetlana during much of her time in the United States.
Here, the lawyer, Peter Horvath, is made literary editor for Svetlana after her death, and as he puts together the various papers, he also takes his mind back to the past and their complicated relationship. Brought in by the CIA to travel with Svetlana from Switzerland to the U.S., Peter and her share a unique experience. As he tries to make her transition more comfortable, he brings her into his personal life by inviting her to his summer home near the ocean. And thus begins a lifelong antipathy by his wife for this woman she deems a rival.
As Svetlana makes connections, she also gets drawn into a controlling relationship by Frank Lloyd Wright's widow and the lawyer was the one asked to give her away when she married Wright's widowed son-in-law. The marriage doesn't last, but it does produce a son.
This insight into the life of an extremely troubled woman, manipulated by many in her life, was a fantastic read. I learned about the real story with empathy.

That Part Was True

Finished January 22
That Part Was True by Deborah McKinlay

This novel has two main characters. One is British Eve Petworth, reader, single mother, and middle aged woman finally starting to live her own life. The other is American Jackson Cooper, novelist, divorced man with no children, who is questioning his career.
The connection between them begins when Eve writes to Jackson saying how much she enjoyed one of his books. The two soon discover a shared passion for good food and the creating of it. Their correspondence continues over a period of months, mostly one that others in their lives are not aware of. They share recipes, talk about their lives, and find comfort in the ongoing conversation.
Outside of the letters and emails, both have lots going on. Eve's daughter Izzy is planning her wedding, and expressing regret about the recent loss of her grandmother, Eve's overbearing mother. Jackson has a bit of a writer's block, and is starting to date after the end of his marriage. Both have great confidants: Jackson's actor friend Dex, and Eve's housekeeper and friend Gwen.
This is a story of a friendship as it evolves, and we see each character deal with life's challenges and learn to trust themselves.

The Fire Next Time

Finished December 27
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

This short book was originally published in 1963, and yet so little has changed. The book contains two pieces. The first My Dungeon Shook is a letter to his teenage nephew on the one hundredth anniversary of the emancipation. It talks about the state of racial equality, and how little has improved in that one hundred years. It is a combination of history, social culture, and advice.
The second piece Down at the Cross is a "letter from a region in my mind" as the subtitle says. It includes his own experiences of prejudice, of the rise of black Islam, of the hypocrisy of many white Christians, It has so many sentences that resonate today.

It is this individual uncertainty on the part of white American men and women, this inability to renew themselves at the fountain of their own lives, that makes the discussion, let alone elucidation, of any conundrum - that is, any reality - so supremely difficult

and

From my own point of view, the fact of the Third Reich alone makes obsolete for ever any question of Christian superiority, except in technological terms.

and

We human beings now have the power to exterminate ourselves; this seems to be the entire sum of our achievement

It is sad that more than fifty years after this was written we still see these as relevant in our world. Very little real progress has been made for blacks in America.
As he says,

America, of all the Western nations, has been best placed to prove the uselessness and the obsolescence of the concept of colour. But it has not dared to accept this opportunity, or even to conceive of it as an opportunity. White Americans have thought of it as their shame, and have envied the more civilized and elegant European nations that were untroubled by the presence of black men on their shores. This is because white Americans have supposed 'Europe' and 'civilization' to be synonyms - which they are not - and have been distrustful of other standards and other sources of vitality, especially those produced in America itself, and have attempted to behave in all matters as though what was east for Europe was also East for them. What it comes to is that if we, who can scarcely be considered a white nation, persist in thinking of ourselves as one, we condemn ourselves, with the truly white nations, to sterility and decay, whereas if we could accept ourselves as we are, we might bring new life to the Western achievements, and transform them.

Essential reading.

Report from the Interior

Finished September 18
Report from the Interior by Paul Auster, read by the author

This memoir takes us from Paul's childhood through to his college days. The beginning was the most interesting to me, the random memories that he still had of those early days of moments caught in time. Memories of school, of friendships, of a love of baseball, realizing how his Jewish ancestry set him apart and his choice to embrace that.
The middle part covered two movies that made a big impression on him: The Incredible Shrinking Man and I Was a Prisoner on a Chain Gang. He describes these movies in detail, speaking of his reactions to them as they unfolded. They were very thorough and you could see the passion he had for these films, but less interesting to me as a reader.
The last part covers his college days and is taken from recently discovered letters he wrote to his first wife, Lydia Davis, which she shared with him. He has none of her letters, having not kept them, so it is very one-sided, and focused more on himself than on anything else. I found it a bit too self-centered to hold my interest.
Definitely not as good as his Winter Journal.

Evergreen Tidings from the Baumgartners

Finished August 12
Evergreen Tidings from the Baumgartners by Gretchen Anthony

This fun novel, coming out later this fall, takes an inside look at a Midwest family where things don't always go as the matriarch wishes. Violet Baumgartner has managed the lives of her husband and children as much as she can, but she can't always control things. The novel intersperses a selection of Violet's annual Christmas letters with events as they unfolded over the months from last fall when her husband Ed retired from his research position at BioTech.
The book opens with an incident in June, when Violet is being questioned by police over someone being punched, and a woman yelling out a question. Violet knows some of the answers to his questions, but she doesn't want to admit it. It is followed by the events beginning in December with Ed's retirement party.
Violet's daughter Cerise loves her mother dearly, but is frustrated that she hasn't acknowledged Cerise's sexuality, in spite of being friendly with her long-term partner Barb. Cerise is now pregnant, and Violet's need to know everything is definitely going to be an issue. Cerise hasn't told her yet, as she is waiting until after her dad's party, so as not to steal the limelight or distract her mom from all the planning. But when someone else discloses the information in front of everyone, things start going a little off the rails.
This book has a lot of humour, the growth of Violet as a person as she comes to terms with her daughter's real life, and family issues all round.
I found it a quick and enjoyable read, that surprised and entertained.

A Vicarage in the Blitz

Finished February 22
A Vicarage in the Blitz: The Wartime Letters of Molly Rich 1940-1944 will illustrations by Anthea Craigmyle

This collection of letters was written to Otto a refugee from Austria, who came to live at the vicarage in Chiswick with Molly and her family in early 1939. A little more than a year after arriving, Otto, like many young men from Germany and Austria was interned as an enemy alien. At first Otto was interned in England, but then in Australia, and finally back in England again. Eventually, he was released an joined first the Pioneer Corps, and then the Army and fought in the war.
To Molly, he was like another son, and she corresponded with him in that manner. She tried to keep him focused on the future in a positive way, and used what means she could to find out where he was and advocate for him.
Otto saved the letters and it was only in 1974, after Molly's death that he mentioned them to Anthea, Molly's youngest child. The letters numbered over 600, most of them typed. Only some of them are included in this book. Molly was aware of the censorship of letters during the war and tried to avoid including anything that might cause an issue in that regard, telling Otto of goings on in the household, with friends and neighbours, and general news. As a vicar's wife, Molly was very involved in her community, and housed a number of other war refugees, both domestic and foreign, during the war. She worked for a variety of charitable causes, kept a victory garden, did fire-watching, and worried about her children who were either away at boarding school, or evacuated to the country where Molly's mother lived.
The letters are chatty, with lots of everyday information, war worries, and concern for Otto's wellbeing.
The book includes photographs, a map of Chiswick, and a list of the various people mentioned in the letters, with a little about them, along with wonderful drawings by Anthea related to the letters' content. At the back of the book are two appendices, the first listing incidents in Chiswick caused by enemy actions. The second is a timeline of the war, with events that affected Molly and her family.
Anthea enlisted a friend with editing experience to go through the letters and help decide what to include in this book. Other than correcting spelling, the letters are unaltered.

The Sandalwood Tree

Finished April 7
The Sandalwood Tree by Elle Newmark

This novel takes place in two different times. In 1947, Evie Mitchell is moving to India with her husband Martin and young son Billy. Martin returned from World War II changed, and Evie hopes that this time in India will help bring him back. Martin is an anthropologist and is coming to India on a Fulbright scholarship to research the end of the Raj and Partition. The two met while at University, where Evie was an aspiring astronomer. They come from different background. Martin's parents are Jewish academics and Evie's father is a blue collar Catholic.
In the small bungalow the two rent near Simla, Evie finds a cache of letters hidden behind a brick in the kitchen. They are dated from the 1850s, and Evie becomes fascinated by the two women who wrote the letters, searching for their story.
Felicity Chadwick and Adela Winfield are the two women, and we learn of their friendship, which began when Felicity was sent to England for her education while her parents continued to live in India. The letters date from when Felicity returned to England as a young woman.
Both time periods are ones of unrest. In the 1850s, there was the Sepoy Rebellion also known as India's First War of Independence, and upcoming Partition causes great unrest within India.
Evie is feeling lonely and isolated, without even her husband as a real companion. The local British have their own outlook that Evie finds colonial. Her ayah Rashmi, takes it upon herself to offer puja and advice to resolve what she sees are Evie's problems, much to Evie's embarrassment. She explores the local area, despite her husband's concerns, as part of her search for Felicity and Adela's story.
Felicity and Adela are both rebels in their time as well, dreaming of independence and a life without subjugation to a husband. Living on her own in India, Felicity is outside the world of her fellow Britons in many ways.
In both time periods, it is a crisis situation that changes how the women interact with those around them, bringing them closer and changing their relationships with those around them. I liked the independent spirit and curiosity displayed by the characters and their growth over time.

13 rue Therese

Finished January 30
13 rue Therese by Elena Mauli Shapiro

This very unusual novel was inspired by a box of mementos the author had possession of. She built this story around them. The back cover describes the book as a puzzle-novel.
In the novel, a young American scholar in nineteenth century French literature is taking a position at a Paris university. His name is Trevor Stratton. The secretary at the university, Josianne, has a ritual of giving a box of artifacts indirectly to a visiting foreign professor and seeing what happens. The box chooses to return to her following each episode. She does not do this every year, only when something draws her to a certain one. The contents of the box have been known to induce fevers, including with Josianne herself when she first came upon it.
We see the reaction of Trevor through letters he writes to someone, whom he addresses only as "sir". Sometimes there are rambling. Sometimes he describes what he finds, providing images and translations. Sometimes he appears to know things that are impossible for him to know, as if he had actually been present at moments in the past.
The author provide a list of the mementos with QR codes beside each one. These links take you to enhanced versions of the images, and are also available through the website www.13ruetherese.com.
This is a passionate book, full of emotion. I loved the uncertainty, the way I had to work things out. A book like no other I've read.