A heartwarming piece of historical fiction taking place during WWII in Nottingham (I’ve read tons of books about the home front in London so this is new for me!). It is 1939 and 25-year old Emma is a single mother whose husband died five years before in a car accident. She manages to get a much needed job at the subscription library in the back of Boot’s (UK pharmacy), which was difficult and UK law at the time made it illegal to hire married women or widows with children. The story is of Emma’s war — working, volunteering with the WVA, but mostly dealing with the trauma of having to send her 7-year old daughter away to the country for her own safety.
My favorite thing about historical fiction such as this is the way we get the full and individual experience of living through times that are too easily summed up in history books in terms of events and casualty numbers, and not on the experience of individuals. I particularly liked the way Martin added all sorts of details of which I was unaware. I loved the way the subscription library worked and the explanation of why public libraries didn’t meet the needs of all subscribers. Librarians at the subscription libraries were responsible for curating loans for each individual patron. I would have been very happy to have that job! Special “red label” books such as Lady Chatterly’s Lover had to be specifically requested and were not allowed on the floor. There was plenty of story about the patrons of the library, their reading habits, and the librarians who helped them. Plenty of other new details (for me) as well. One character turns out to be part of the “Mass Observation.” This is a program started in 1937 that continued for 30 years. The “observers” carefully noted down what people talked about and did. Apparently it was originally started to capture the feelings of people about King Edward’s abdication, but of course continued to be valuable once the war started. And did you know that pet owners were “ordered” to put their pets down at the start of the war to save food for people?
Some romance, plenty of hardships, and always enough community pulling together when necessary. I liked the characters — books like this focus on the best in people which (fortunately) does come out in times of trouble. Of course I also loved the story of how books and reading help us when we need them. It’s a good pairing with one of her other books — The Last Bookshop in London — and there is a cameo appearance of that very bookshop and its booksellers in this volume.
Thank you to Hanover Square Press and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on September 10th, 2024.
Books to look forward to ... 