Life took longer to reassemble than it did to blow apart, but that didn't mean it wouldn't be lovely, providing that one remembered to go for country walks, and to tune the wireless to music.
Chris Cleave, Everyone Brave Is Forgiven
Cleave says his novel was inspired by his own grandparents, although the story is based only loosely on their experiences.
Mary is an idealistic rich girl whose mother only wants to marry well. Instead she volunteers to help with the war effort however she can, then gets assigned to teach school, even though she lacks any qualifications. Most London children are soon sent to the countryside when the Germans start bombing the city, but some children, either because they are black, disabled in some way or otherwise unattractive, are rejected by the country people and returned to London. Mary decides to teach them.
She falls in love with Tom, her supervisor, but then one fateful night she and her best friend, Hilda, go out with Tom and his best friend, Alistair, and magic strikes between Mary and Alistair, an Army officer. Hilda feels betrayed because she likes Alistair, too. As for Tom, a German bomb soon kills him, as well as most of Mary's students. For most of the novel Alistair and Mary are separated by the war, he under siege on Malta and she driving an ambulance during bombing raids. Both suffer disabling injuries.
The war destroys so much. Will it destroy this love that had just one brief night to form? Will everyone brave be forgiven? Will everyone forgiven stay brave? Cleave deals with such questions in an incredibly beautiful and meaningful novel.
No comments:
Post a Comment