Vivienne de la Mare is not your usual protagonist because she is not a hero with preconceived opinions but as a real person that struggles with all the same shadowy doubts that we encounter.
Vivienne de la Mare’s dilemmas start in her spontaneous announcement that she and her daughters are leaving the Island, because the Germans are coming, to her looking at that little ship and turning around in an about face.
The story is about the occupation of Island of Guernsey by the Germans in WWII. It is another side of the people in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.
This book is about parallel paths you take or would you follow Vivienne de la Mare’s path.
It starts by wondering if she should take her daughter go to England or stay. As she stays and has to confront her loveless marriage to her solider husband, the atrocious acts by a special branch of the Nazi army, starving people , life or death, and even in trusting her daughters with information.
This will be a wonderful book for Book Clubs as there is a wealth of discussion material as different views of black, white, and gray emerges. The end has a little surprise as the loose ends are tied up.