This historical novel started out with such promise. And, from a literary standpoint, it probably delivered. But I didn't like the multiple stories and didn't see how they came together.
The Welsh girl, Esther, works in a pub, has an alcoholic father, a dead mother, and the family takes in evacuees from the city during World War II. The English government sets up a German POW camp next to her dad's pasture and this provides tons of excitement for the community. She is drawn to Karsten, a young German POW who speaks English, has an affair with him, and tells him about how she became in the family way.
The second plot line is about Rotheram, a German 1/2 Jew who doesn't claim his Jewish heritage. He is an English interrogator sent to question Rudolf Hess in Wales. And I'm so glad I'm not the only one who didn't feel that this fit into the novel. I loved the idea of Hess in the novel. I found myself searching websites to see if this stuff was true, but it didn't fit in with Esther.
From Bookmarks Magazine: "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. "
So, this book is written beautifully. Love the characterization, description of the Welsh countryside, blah, blah, blah, but it doesn't fit together good enough for me.
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