Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday was originally hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page, but is now a traveling meme and for the month of April Mailbox Monday will be hosted by Passages to the Past! Go over and visit her to see what she got in her mailbox.

The past several months my mailbox has been devoid of books, but this week by complete surprise I received from Hyperion Press an ARC copy of The Soldier's Wife. I vaguely remember filling out a form asking for this book from Hyperion but I never figured I'd get it. Lucky me!

The Soldier's Wife

by Margaret Leroy

Publisher's Weekly says it is an exploration of "motherhood and marital infidelity, in the context of the German occupation of the British Channel Islands during WWII. Vivienne de la Mare loves her young daughters Blanche and Millie, but not her marriage, so when her husband is called up to the front, for her it's almost a relief. Then the German army occupies her town, and Vivienne is increasingly torn between her sympathies for the POWs and her budding feelings for Gunther, a German officer who has moved in next door. She and Gunther begin an affair, but she remains committed to protecting and nurturing her daughters as they grow up in this tense, dangerous environment, with waning hope of their father's return. Leroy lovingly portrays the era and the isolated Guernsey landscape while simultaneously offering an unsparing view of the specific horrors of war."

I read the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society earlier this year, so I'm interested to see how these two stories reflect on each other.