The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NOW A NETFLIX FILM • A remarkable tale of the island of Guernsey during the German Occupation, and of a society as extraordinary as its name.\n\n"Treat yourself to this book, please--I can't recommend it highly enough."--Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love\n\n"I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers." January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she's never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb. . . .\n\nAs Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends--and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society--born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island--boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.\n\nJuliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society's members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.\n\nWritten with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises and of finding connection in the most surprising ways.\n\nPraise for The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society\n\n"A jewel . . . Poignant and keenly observed, Guernsey is a small masterpiece about love, war, and the immeasurable sustenance to be found in good books and good friends."--People\n\n"A book-lover's delight, an implicit and sometimes explicit paean to all things literary."--Chicago Sun-Times\n\n"A sparkling epistolary novel radiating wit, lightly worn erudition and written with great assurance and aplomb."--The Sunday Times (London)\n\n"Cooked perfectly à point: subtle and elegant in flavour, yet emotionally satisfying to the finish."--The Times (London)\n\nEditorial Reviews\n\nI can't remember the last time I discovered a novel as smart and delightful as this one, a world so vivid that I kept forgetting this was a work of fiction populated with characters so utterly wonderful that I kept forgetting they weren't my actual friends and neighbors. Treat yourself to this book please--I can't recommend it highly enough."--Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love\n\n"Traditional without seeming stale, and romantic without being naive . . . It's tempting to throw around terms like 'gem' when reading a book like this. But Guernsey is not precious. . . . This is a book for firesides or long train rides. It's as charming and timeless as the novels for which its characters profess their love."--San Francisco Chronicle Book Review\n\n"[The] characters step from the past radiant with eccentricity and kindly humour. [The] writing, with its delicately offbeat, self-deprecating stylishness, is exquisitely turned."--The Guardian (U.K.)\n\n"I've never wanted to join a club so desperately as I did while reading Guernsey. . . . [The novel] is a labor of love and it shows on almost every page."--The Christian Science Monitor\n\n"I could not put the book down. I have recommended it to all my friends."--Newsday\n\n"A jewel . . . Poignant and keenly observed, Guernsey is a small masterpiece about love, war, and the immeasurable sustenance to be found in good books and good friends."--People\n\n"A book-lover's delight, an implicit and sometimes explicit paean to all things literary."--Chicago Sun-Times\n\n"A sparkling epistolary novel radiating wit, lightly worn erudition and written with great assurance and aplomb."--The Sunday Times (London)\n\n"Cooked perfectly à point: subtle and elegant in flavour, yet emotionally satisfying to the finish."--The Times (London)\n\n"A sweet, sentimental paean to books and those who love them. . . . It affirms the power of books to nourish people enduring hard times."--The Washington Post Book World\n\n"[A] marvelous debut . . . This is a warm, funny, tender, and thoroughly entertaining celebration of the power of the written word."--Library Journal\n\n"A poignant, funny novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit. . . . A treat."--The Boston Globe\n\n"A sure winner."--Kirkus Reviews\n\n"Delightful . . . One of those joyful books that celebrates how reading brings people together."--New Orleans Times-Picayune\n\n"Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows have written a wondrous, delightful, poignant book-- part Jane Austen, part history lesson. The letters aren't addressed to you, but they are meant for you. It's a book everyone should read. An absolute treasure."--Sarah Addison Allen, author of Garden Spells\n- From the Publisher\n\nA Selection of Barnes & Noble Recommends\nThe Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society begins in January 1946, when popular author Juliet Ashton, much like her fellow British citizens, is emerging from the dark days of World War II. As Juliet exchanges a series of letters with her publisher and her best friend, readers immediately warm to this author in search of a new subject in the aftermath of war. By the time Juliet receives an unexpected query from Dawsey Adams, we are caught in a delightful web of letters and vivid personalities and eager for Juliet to find the inspiration she seeks. \n\nDawsey, a farmer on the island of Guernsey in the English Channel, has come into possession of a book that once belonged to Juliet. Spurred by a mutual admiration for the writer, the two launch an epistolary conversation that reveals much about Dawsey's Guernsey and the islanders' recent lives under Nazi occupation. Juliet is especially interested to learn about the curious beginnings of "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society," and before long she is exchanging letters with its other members -- not only Dawsey but Isola the vegetable seller, Eben the fisherman, and blacksmith Will Thisbee, creator of the famous potato peel pie. \n\nAs Juliet soon discovers, the most compelling island character is Elizabeth, the courageous founder of the society, who lives in the memories of all who knew her. Each person who writes to Juliet adds another chapter to the story of Elizabeth's remarkable wartime experiences. Touched by the stories the letters deliver, Juliet can't help but travel to Guernsey herself -- a decision that will have surprising consequences for everyone involved. \n\nDrawn together by their love of books and affection for each other, the unforgettable characters of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society collectively tell a moving tale of endurance and friendship. Through the chorus of voices they have created, Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows have composed a rich tale that celebrates the power of hope and human connection in the shadows of war. \n\nAbout the Authors \n\nIn 1976, inspired by a newfound fascination with Guernsey, Mary Ann Shaffer traveled to the island in the English Channel, only to be stranded there due to inclement weather. Waiting for a thick fog to lift so she could return to London, Shaffer read all the books in the Guernsey airport bookstore. Jersey Under the Jack-Boot sparked a particular interest in the German occupation of the Channel Islands. \n\nYears later, prompted by her book club to write a novel of her own, Shaffer turned to this subject in creating the vivid world of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Told entirely through a series of letters -- because, Shaffer confessed, "for some bizarre reason, I thought it would be easier" -- the novel skillfully renders the characters and concerns of Juliet, Sidney, and the other residents of Guernsey who have just emerged from the horrors and hardships of the Second World War. \n\nBorn in 1934 in Martinsburg, West Virginia, Mary Ann Shaffer made a career working with books -- as an editor, librarian, and bookseller -- before her death in February 2008. She died knowing that her novel was scheduled for publication and in the good hands of her niece and coauthor, Annie Barrows. Also a veteran of the publishing industry, having been an editor at a textbook company and at Chronicle Books before becoming a writing teacher, Barrow has written nonfiction for adults under the pen name Ann Fiery. Her energetic series for young readers, Ivy and Bean, has received multiple awards, including an ALA Notable Children's Book designation. She lives in northern California. \n\nThe Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is the first novel for both authors. \n\nFrom Our Booksellers\n\nClear your calendars and take the phone off the hook. You won't want to be interrupted once you start this book!\n--Anne Sojka, Wheaton, IL\n\nReminiscent of 84, Charing Cross Road, this book is a gem. It celebrates the very reasons we read for pure enjoyment. It made me want to take the next boat to Guernsey to search for these charming characters.\n--Karen Schafroth, Des Peres, MO\n\nWhat a story! The war, the possibility of romance in the most unlikely of places, and best of all, the glowing love of reading and of books -- all of it wrapped up in such lovely, unpretentious prose that after every chapter I wanted to hand it to strangers.\n--Steve Donoghue, Boston, MA\n\nI fell in love with the characters, and became so enamored with Guernsey that I had to get out a map to make sure it was real, and then Google it to see how I could get there.\n--Jill Borage, St. Louis, MO \n- \n\nThough it deals with a dark period in history, this first novel is an essentially sunny work. It affirms the power of books to nourish people enduring hard times-not so surprising, since Mary Ann Shaffer, who died earlier this year, had a long career as a librarian, bookseller and editor. Her niece Annie Barrows, a children's author, finished the manuscript after Shaffer fell ill; between them, they crafted a vivid epistolary novel whose characters spring to life in letters and telegrams exchanged over the course of nine months shortly after the end of World War II...You could be skeptical about the novel's improbabilities and its sanitized portrait of book clubs (doesn't anyone read trashy thrillers?), but you'd be missing the point. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a sweet, sentimental paean to books and those who love them.\n-The Washington Post\n- Wendy Smith\n\nShaffer's debut novel, written with her niece Barrow, is an original account of one writer's relationship with a member of a unique book club formed as an alibi to protect its members from arrest at the hands of the Nazis during WWII. With a small cast of gifted narrators including Paul Boehmer, Susan Duerdan, John Lee, Rosalyn Landor and the enjoyable Juliet Mills, this production is first-class from top to bottom. The narrators' British dialects, each quite regional and equally as different as they are ear-pleasing, serve the story well and allow Shaffer's words to leap from the page into the hearts and minds of her listeners. The final result is an almost theatrical experience with a plethora of enthusiastic performances. A Dial Press hardcover (Reviews, Apr. 21).(July)Copyright ® Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.\n\n- Publishers Weekly\n\nRead LJ's 9/9/08 starred audio review of this debut title, currently a best seller in hardcover, which was recently optioned for film, at xpressreview.notlong.com.\n-Staff\n\n- Library Journal\n\nThe German occupation of the Channel Islands, recalled in letters between a London reporter and an eccentric gaggle of Guernsey islanders. This debut by an "aunt-niece" authorial team presents itself as cozy fiction about comfortably quirky people in a bucolic setting, but it quickly evinces far more serious, and ambitious, intent. In 1946, Juliet, famous for her oxymoronic wartime humor column, is coping with life amid the rubble of London when she receives a letter from a reader, Dawsey, a Guernsey resident who asks her help in finding books by Charles Lamb. After she honors his request, a flurry of letters arrive from Guernsey islanders eager to share recollections of the German occupation of the islands. (Readers may be reminded of the PBS series, Island at War.) When the Germans catch some islanders exiting from a late-night pig roast, the group, as an excuse for violating curfew and food restrictions, invents a book club. The "Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" is born, affording Guernseyites an excuse to meet and share meager repasts. (The Germans have confiscated all the real food.) Juliet's fractious correspondents, including reputed witch Isola, Booker, a Jewish valet who masquerades as a Lord, and many other L&PPPS members, reveal that the absent founder of their society, Elizabeth, loved Christian, a German captain. No one accuses Elizabeth of collaboration (except one crotchety islander, Adelaide) because Christian was genuinely nice. An act of bravery caused Elizabeth's deportation to France, and her whereabouts remain unknown. The Society is raising four-year-old Kit, Elizabeth's daughter by Christian. To the consternation of her editor and friend, Sidney, Juliet isentertaining the overtures, literary and romantic, of a dashing but domineering New York publisher, Markham. When Juliet goes to Guernsey, some hard truths emerge about Elizabeth's fate and defiant courage. Elizabeth and Juliet are appealingly reminiscent of game but gutsy '40s movie heroines. The engrossing subject matter and lively writing make this a sure winner, perhaps fodder for a TV series. Agent: Liza Dawson/Liza Dawson Associates\n\n- Kirkus Reviews