The Welsh Girl

by Peter Ho Davies

book data

577 ratings, 3.44 average rating, 158 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		10%
4		40%
3		33%
2		14%
1		1%

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published

2007 by Houghton Mifflin

binding

Hardcover, 352 pages

isbn

0618007008 (isbn13: 9780618007004)

description

Following two widely praised short-story collections, Equal Love and The Ugliest House in the World, Peter Ho Davies's first novel, The Welsh Girl, de...more

[close] Following two widely praised short-story collections, Equal Love and The Ugliest House in the World, Peter Ho Davies's first novel, The Welsh Girl, deserves to be equally well received. It carefully examines two great themes, dislocation and cowardice, through the stories of a WWII POW camp built by the British in the remote mountains of northern Wales and Esther, the 17-year-old Welsh girl at the heart of the story. The POW camp, filled with Germans, is yet another national insult, as far as the Welsh are concerned, only one of many instances of prejudice between and among the novel's characters: Welshman against Brit and vice versa, Brits and Welshmen against Germans, Germans against Jews. Some of these enmities are age-old antagonisms; others are newly-minted political killing machines.

Davies introduces a Welsh concept--cynefin--for which there is no English equivalent. It means a certain knowledge and sense of place that is passed down the matrilineal line in a flock of sheep. They always know where they belong and never leave their own turf. It is a perfect metaphor for much of what takes place in this carefully plotted story, and for the displacement felt by many of the characters. Esther longs to escape her village, yet is devoted to the flock and to her father. She meets Colin, an English soldier, in the pub where she works. He is a rough sort and things end very badly between them.

Another theme visited again and again is the concept of cowardice. Is it cowardly to save one's life and the lives of others by surrendering to the enemy? Is death the price that must be paid to be considered brave? The German POWs debate this endlessly, especially Karsten, an intelligent, sensitive soldier who did surrender himself and his men when it was clear that all was lost. When he and Esther find one another under impossible circumstances, Davies renders their relationship perfectly: it is star-crossed, but desperately important to both of them, setting them both "free" in the truest sense of the word. The Welsh Girl is a beautifully told story of love, war, and the accommodations we make in the midst of both. --Valerie Ryan

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08/14/07

Tracy rated it:

Read in August, 2007

recommends it for: absolutely everone

I loved this book. It was a little slow going at first and the first 20-30 pages I had to half-push myself into. Then I got caught up in the story. The language used is beautiful, some sentences so perfect they hurt, but at the same time it doesn't distract at *all* from the story being told. This is a book I read at first primarily for the story and now I want to reread again for the subtle nuances I missed. But it makes me think and it makes me happy and I love the characters - not just h...more

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06/26/07

Jim rated it:

Read in February, 2006

recommends it for: Shepherds

Peter Ho Davies’ debut novel, The Welsh Girl, is an historical fiction set in the latter half of World War II in a remote village in Wales. The construction of a secret camp causes much excitement in the village, particularly for Esther, a young barmaid who has fallen for one of the English soldiers tasked with building the camp. The dalliance is particularly volatile because Esther’s father is a staunch Nationalist who views the English as nothing more than Anglo oppressors. Esther’s soli...more Peter Ho Davies’ debut novel, The Welsh Girl, is an historical fiction set in the latter half of World War II in a remote village in Wales. The construction of a secret camp causes much excitement in the village, particularly for Esther, a young barmaid who has fallen for one of the English soldiers tasked with building the camp. The dalliance is particularly volatile because Esther’s father is a staunch Nationalist who views the English as nothing more than Anglo oppressors. Esther’s solider, Collin, promptly takes advantage of Esther and ravishes her, spilling both the secret of the German prisoner-of-war camp as well as his seed. Soon after, Esther has a secret of her own.

Auf Weidersehen Collin, enter Karsten, a dashing young blond German Navy infantryman who is as clever with his hands as he is with his tongue. Despite his fluency in English, Karsten has a rough go of it in the POW camp because he is marked with the secret shame of the capitulator—survivor’s guilt’s hateful cousin. Poor Karsten is afflicted with self-loathing not seen since Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim took a swan dive off the fantail of the Patna, leaving hundreds of passengers to drown.

As the chapters alternate between Esther and Karsten, the two characters are inexorably drawn together until the barbed wire that separates the prisoner inside the camp and the woman inside her tyrannical father’s home becomes metaphor thin. It seems a foregone conclusion that Esther and Karsten will get busy in the haymow, which they do, but after a few days hiding out in Esther’s father’s barn eating food that she prepares for him, Karsten decides to give himself up—again—and is returned to camp.

A curious wrinkle in Davies’s village narrative concerns a German-Jew named Rotheram, an officer in the English Army who is sent to Wales to interrogate Rudolf Hess, the member of Hitler’s inner circle who famously flew the coop in a Messerschmitt Bf 110 and touched down in Scotland in an ill-conceived attempt to negotiate peace with England—without Hitler’s knowledge or approval. The Fuhrer dismissed Hess as a lunatic. Hess professed amnesia and Churchill had the aviator locked up for the duration of the war in a series of safe houses in Wales.

Because so little is known about Hess’s motives, he is an excellent subject for a work of historical fiction. Pairing him with an interrogator who is conflicted about his identity and is in extreme denial about his Jewish ancestry was a masterstroke. But does the story belong in a novel about a shepherd’s daughter?

Davies has a knack for evoking the telling detail but at times he falls prey to the quick and easy characterization: the English soldier who is “glossily handsome, like the lobby card of a film star,” (25) or the bartender wounded in the Great War who walks with a limp but has “never spilled a drop.” (28) Indeed, when we first meet Esther she compares her emotions to the settling of a pint of Guinness, a sentiment that errs on the treacly side of sweet.

Nevertheless, Davies’s characters are marvelously nuanced. Each of the three major characters suffers from a severe conflict of identity. Esther must shield the identity of her baby’s father from her father and invents a relationship with the village’s only casualty to protect her child. Karsten, the son of a fallen war hero, struggles in vain to fill his father’s shoes and win his mother’s approval. Rotheram, the German-Jew, tells everyone who will listen to him that’s he’s not Jewish until the denials transcend falsehood and become farcical. Each one of these characters could carry the novel, but the hero-by-committee approach falls short.

While the organization is a bit of a muddle, by the end of the epilogue all questions have been resolved and the novel’s earlier missteps are redeemed. We even follow Hess to his cell in Spandau where he committed suicide at the age of ninety-three, a cipher (less)

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06/23/09

Colleen rated it:

Read in December, 2007

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

This was a good book. Not a great book, but a good book. My biggest complaint, I guess, is that the book was so wordy. The excessive descriptions and dialogue bogged the story down. The author really made the Welsh village, turned upside down by the arrival of soldiers and POWs, come alive. I liked Ester. I could relate to her desire to do something more with her life. But desire does not equal action and some unfortunate incidents resulted in her being trapped in her little village. Muc...more

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03/30/09

Blodeuedd rated it:

Read in April, 2009

It seems this book wasn't what I thought it was about, but that was just fun.

It's a book about 3 people, even though it focuses mostly on 2 of them. First there is a Jewish captain who is sent to see if Rudolf Hess is crazy or not. He is being held prisoner in Welsh. Then there is the main focus of the story, Esther, a 17 year old Welsh girl. She works in the local pub, and she longs to see more of the world outside. She meets a soldier, Colin, who is there building a POW camp. He is...more It seems this book wasn't what I thought it was about, but that was just fun.

It's a book about 3 people, even though it focuses mostly on 2 of them. First there is a Jewish captain who is sent to see if Rudolf Hess is crazy or not. He is being held prisoner in Welsh. Then there is the main focus of the story, Esther, a 17 year old Welsh girl. She works in the local pub, and she longs to see more of the world outside. She meets a soldier, Colin, who is there building a POW camp. He is also an English soldier, and she hides knowing him.

It's also the story of a German soldier, we meet him before he was capture and learns why he went to war. And then he end up in a Welsh POW camp.

Rooted in the story is the word cynefin, it has no English meaning. It has to do with the sheep, they know where to stay on the hill and never venture further. The know where they belong. It's seen through out the novel, Esther wants to escape, the Jewish captain who's mother is Lutheran and he is too, still he had to flee. And he keeps saying he is not Jewish. And at last, Karsten, the POW, who ordered his men to surrender to save them, and is troubled by this.

There is also the nationalistic angle in this book, the Welsh frown upon the English that is everywhere and they can't even write letters in Welsh cos the censures can't understand it.

It's a good book, I read it easily and I wanted to know what would happen. It was very well-written, but even if I didn't love the book it was worth reading

Not that i so much about Rotheram, the Jewish captain but he was an interesting character. He started and ended the book. I did like Esther, I felt that i could understand her and her doubts. And I even liked Karsten. It's not a book that points and says he is the bad guy, no they all have faults, and they all have those things that make you understand them. He has managed to capture something genuine in this book.

I will give the book a 3/5, because even if it was a great book, I felt it was just ok. Worth reading yes, but that all depends on the person reading(less)

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02/05/09

Bookmarks Magazine added it

Peter Ho Davies's two short-story collections, Equal Love and The Ugliest House in the World, met with critical acclaim, and reviewers generally enjoyed his first novel as well. Yet while they praised the book's complicated character portraits and its complex themes, many felt that the Rotheram-Hess subplot, while fascinating, was tangential to the novel's main triangle. And, despite the title, Esther does not appear to be the novel's protagonist. Perhaps the troubles begin with the prologue, in

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02/20/09

C(h)ristine rated it:

Read in February, 2009

I bought this book more than a year ago. And I’d pick it up to read, then put it back down, pick it up again, then put it back down. I just wasn’t that intrigued by the subject matter (World War II) or by the opening lines–and I’d keep picking it up because I LOVE Peter Ho Davies’ work. He is a tremendous short story writer whose prose is amazing and who in real life is super gracious and charming. But I kept giving the book a chance and eventually I picked it up to read. It was a bit ...more

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01/05/08

Kristine rated it:

(review of isbn 0618918523)

Read in March, 2008

Well-written, cinematically rendered WWII novel of interwoven stories of a 17-year-old Welsh barmaid and daughter of a sheep rancher, a German POW who surrendered, and a British interrogator who is a German Jew. Very interesting exploration of cowardice, pride, dislocation, and nationalism with well fleshed-out characters and vivid scenes.

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05/25/09

Heather rated it:

(review of isbn 0340938277)

bookshelves: historical-fiction

This book literally took my breath away a few times. The story takes place in a small Welsh village in September 1944 amidst the convergence of German POWs, English army officers, Welsh-speaking villagers, and a German Jew working for the British who has been assigned to interrogate Rudolf Hess. It is an absolutely lyrical exploration of nationalism, duty, and loss of identity, which all of the characters are experiencing at the same time in very different ways, whether they call it Vaterland,...more

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02/09/09

fbuser1217269379 rated it:

A few years ago I came across a short story from a new writer called "The Ugliest House in the World." Set in a small Welsh town, the story was simple, clear, and incredibly moving; I've never forgotten it and I have often wondered if he wrote anything else. Just recently, I read a review of a debut novel by the same author, Peter Ho Davies. Delicate, lyrical, and quiet, the novel slowly opens up and pulls you in. Set in the wanning days of World War II, the story centers around t...more

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06/27/07

Jane rated it:

Read in May, 2007

I loved the story line about Rotherham, the interrogator of Hess. Esther's conflicts, however, seemed to be a story I've already read in another novel (in many other novels?), dressed up in beautiful language.

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05/29/09

Lauren rated it:

(review of isbn 0340938277)

bookshelves: 1980-onwards, by-british-author, historical-fiction, war-and-conflict

Read in May, 2009

recommended to Lauren by: richard & judy book club

This book I came to admire a lot. I'll admit it took a while to get into it, and I found it began a little stilted. I also found it bizarre how a large number of characters had both their first and last names beginning with the same letters (Esther Evans, Jack Jones, Harry Hitch, Mary Monroe just off the top of my head). That was... odd.

What saved it for me was the character of Karsten, and his relationship with the other POWs. Esther, too, was interesting, although sometimes I felt ...more

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01/04/09

Bibliophile rated it:

(review of isbn 0618918523)

bookshelves: 2009

Read in January, 2009

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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12/01/08

Chris rated it:

I liked this book a lot, and if I could have given it 4.5 stars, I would have done so. The Welsh Girl is an evocative coming-of-age story set in Wales during WWII, in which Esther, a seventeen-year-old, becomes deeply invovled with a German POW. The main themes of the novel have to do with identity, belonging and alienation. Davies does a good job of developing the characters and vividly describing the landscape. I particularly liked how he explored and developed the concept of cynefin, a Welsh ...more

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05/04/09

Shelby McKean rated it:

Read in November, 2008

This is about my speed for a beach chair read. The writing was like a movie, the story just odd enough, the characters likeable. A small Welsh sheep-herding village houses a camp for German POW's. Esther, the central character is a young woman wanting out of small town life. Without actually managing to go anywhere, she has a few very international clashes. The one clash that seemed lost in the story was between her and the two different boys who stayed with her father and her at two differ...more

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05/11/09

Chip Wyser rated it:

(review of isbn 0618918523)

Read in May, 2009

Well written, fascinating read with a sense of history, suspense and passion. (Man Booker prize winner.) Esther Evans, a 17 year-old barmaid is at the center of this story, as the end of WWII reveals its ravage. Set in the rich, rolling landscape of north Wales, with it's sheep herding and agrarian culture, the British covertly establish a POW camp. The story of several demoralized, captured Germans, one special interrogator, the British workers and guards and their interaction with townsfolk...more

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07/03/09

Becky rated it:

bookshelves: 2009, adult, fiction, historicalfiction, worldwarii

Read in July, 2009

Set in Wales in 1944—almost the end of the war. This is a quiet, thoughtful, intricate story with 3 main characters—a 17-year-old Welsh girl, a young German POW being held in prison camp near the girl’s village, and a English interrogator. Their stories eventually connect. Each character must individually deal with issues of surrender, cowardice, courage “imprisonment”, escape, loyalty, nationalism, honor, truth, sacrifice, and compromise. Would be a great discussion book for groups w...more

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04/29/09

Jon rated it:

A setting I've never run into before--Wales around the time of the D-Day invasion, with the mixed attitudes about who exactly is the enemy, the Germans (new), or the English (forever). Compelling, believable characters, and a series of actions that weave together into a fairly inevitable plot. Raises interesting moral questions (Can the same act be both cowardly and courageous?) with no final answers given. Even some pretty good casual humor, as in the barkeep to the drunk: "I think you've ...more

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08/25/08

Lori rated it:

Read in November, 2008

recommends it for: WWII, Tragic Love Stories,

More than sixty years have passed since the world lurched to the end of the cataclysm of the Second World War. Although the 20th century continued to do its worst and the 21st has been a horror show, WWII remains the epic nightmare of our times. So vast was the battleground, so audacious the brutality, so few corners of the world were spared its lethal touch.

I was born 20 years after the end of the war. WWII still dominated the pop culture of the day. We played Allies and Axis ...more More than sixty years have passed since the world lurched to the end of the cataclysm of the Second World War. Although the 20th century continued to do its worst and the 21st has been a horror show, WWII remains the epic nightmare of our times. So vast was the battleground, so audacious the brutality, so few corners of the world were spared its lethal touch.

I was born 20 years after the end of the war. WWII still dominated the pop culture of the day. We played Allies and Axis on the playground as kids. Movies, tv shows and books were replete with WWII themes. Diabolical Nazis were still running loose on the screen (and ostensibly in South America) waiting to return and impose a Fourth Reich. Classmates brought WWII battle regalia pilfered from veteran relatives for show and tell. We all heard stories from our parents about rationing, victory gardens, black out curtains and the scarcity of shoes and tires. Our eyes were opened to the horrors of the death camps as we were shown the appalling results of the Final Solution in grainy yet all to clear footage from Belsen.

Twenty or thirty years out, these atrocities were still so close. I believe we could only talk about "The War" (there was really only one that deserved the capital letters) in certain ways. The Germans and the Japanese could only be portrayed as super villians. The Americans and, perhaps even more the RAF could only be portrayed as super heroes.

However, time went by and my generation...the children of the children of The War...grew older and befriended one another. In my own circle of friends I could count someone whose uncle had been in the French Resistance, at least three people whose parents had been children in Nazi Germany (one girl's mother had actually been chosen as "the most Aryan child in the village" and, therefore, was given the dubious honor of giving flowers to Adolf Hitler), kids whose parents had been evacuees in Britain during the Blitz, the children of families who had left Eastern Europe just before the Iron Curtain came down and one Dutch guy whose mother had kneed a Nazi soldier in the groin during the occupation in Holland. I also knew kids who had most of their families wiped out in the camps and could only credit being born at all to the fact that their parents were already "over here" by the 1930s.

This long preamble is pertinent to me because I note that Peter Ho Davies is my age. And he has written a moving and engaging story of a little known WWII venue...Wales. He has, I believe, managed to take a new perspective on the war. Davies has resisted the usual characters. The most sympathetic and likeable (even heroic) character in the book is Karsten, a young German officer. The most despicable character (besides Rudolph Hess) is a British soldier. The most conflicted character is a man without a country, who comes to see this fogging of national identity as a gift.

Davies has shifted the usual rules in the narrative of The War. The action takes place in Wales, a much more neutral setting than the casual reader would expect. The Welsh see the English as invaders, as well as the Germans. Many natives view the conflict as "an English war". The average German foot soldier is portrayed with more sympathy than is the norm. However, the realities of the Nazi regime are not glossed over and the inclusion of Hess underscores the insanity of the architects of the Reich.

The story, itself, involves the convergence of the lives of a Welsh farm girl, a German POW and a German Jew who works for the British military. It is a star-crossed love story and a creative piece of historical fiction. What takes The Welsh Girl into more memorable territory is the author's skill in making the reader identify with all the characters as regular people caught up in harrowing times and forced into tragic situations. The author, obviously, did not live through the era himself. Therefore, he is able to take a more universal view --telling the story from all perspectives in a restrained but powerful style.

This book is fodder for much discussion and would make an intriguing choice for book groups.(less)

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08/04/08

Fiona rated it:

(review of isbn 0340938277)

bookshelves: 2008, books-i-own, ww1-ww2

Read in March, 2008

recommends it for: people who want a gentle read

I thought this was going to be more about Hess, but it really isn't - he barely features.

It follows three characters each who through the journey of the book question their nationality and their identity. The First is a German half-jew who escaped to UK before the war fully blew up. The second is a young German POW who battles with his conscience over surrendering to the English. And the third is a Welsh farm girl who feels trapped in provincial village life - who longs to see the wi...more

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07/03/08

Laura0141 rated it:

Title:
The Welsh Girl
Author:
Davies, Peter Ho
Publisher:
Sceptre
Format:
Paperback (BookRing)
BCID:
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/5795...
No. of pages:
343
First sentence:
Outside, the technicolor sunset is giving way to the silvery sweep of searchlights over distant Cardiff as a hand tugs the blackout curtain across the sky.

I read this book because I'm interested in the social history of the Second World W...more