Thursday, March 4, 2010

Our Newest VIB: The Postmistress



A book we’re so excited about, we’ve made it a V.I.B.! That means it’s a true stand-out in a season of many great new books.



Tattered Cover fell HARD for this books months ago, so we're really excited to have it on our shelves and into our customers hands now! Here are some staff reviews:

"This novel follows a handful of characters whose stories, by end of the book, emerged as distinct and heart-breaking voices that were, indeed, united. A World War II novel unlike any I have read, this book takes us into the streets of London during the Blitz, into the refugee trains filled with desperate Jewish people trying to leave Germany, and into a sleepy Massachusetts town just beginning to wake up to the realities of war. Sarah Blake's novel is one of unforgettable humanity that explores the nature of the meaning of existence."

--Joe

"I've read a lot of books that have examined life in the early days of WWII, but never one
like this. Blake's novel concentrates on 3 American women during 1940-41. One is an ambitious reporter fighting the glass ceiling of war reporting over in Europe who finally gets the opportunity of a lifetime that ends up completely changing her life. Another is a somewhat OCD postmaster (it's actually incorrect, according to her, to call her postmistress) working in a small town near Cape Cod who struggles with her need for rules and order and her need to love and connect with people. The third woman is a timid young doctor's wife who must find strength she doesn't think she has in circumstances she never planned for. Each of them personify attitudes that were taken about the war in those days before Pearl Harbor, each of them bring to light an aspect of 1940s womanhood, each of them is a complex character that is hard to forget. The opening quote, from Martha
Gelhorn, is perfect: "War happens to people, one by one." This is what comes alive in this book and makes it resonate long after the last page is turned."

--Jackie

No comments: