A novel full of grand passion and intensity, The Soldier’s Wife asks “What would you do for your family?” “What should you do for a stranger?” and “What would you do for love?”

As World War II draws closer and closer to Guernsey, Vivienne de la Mare knows that there will be sacrifices to be made. Not just for herself, but for her two young daughters and for her mother-in-law, for whom she cares while her husband is away fighting. What she does not expect is that she will fall in love with one of the enigmatic German soldiers who take up residence in the house next door to her home. As their relationship intensifies, so do the pressures on Vivienne. Food and resources grow scant, and the restrictions placed upon the residents of the island grow with each passing week. Though Vivienne knows the perils of her love affair with Gunther, she believes that she can keep their relationship and her family safe. But when she becomes aware of the full brutality of the Occupation, she must decide if she is willing to risk her personal happiness for the life of a stranger.

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

This book came across as a combination of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, The Kommandant’s Girl, and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society all rolled into one.  Set during World War II, the book is an historical fiction about a difficult time in history, exploring charged situations through the eyes of a family, among an occupied country.  This book offers a great cross section of the types of people caught up in the Nazi movement throughout the world — and it does a pretty good job of looking at some serious problems that people had to face during those violent years.

The strength of this book is in the moral implications that Leroy brings to light throughout the development of her story.  This book is set in a time of great difficulties, but it also was set in a morally defining moment of history.  In bringing these challenging issues into a confined locality, and putting the clearly defined differences in a setting that does not allow them to get away from the oppressing environment, Leroy creates a magnified setting for the moral questions that were tearing the Nazi world apart.

One of the biggest moral dilemmas that comes through in this story is the desensitization of conscience that most people had to practice in one form or another — simply to live in a world turned upside down.  Many of us are familiar with this issue, especially in the modern world — however, we are confronted with it in a little different format.  Usually this is the argument used against the excessive use of modern media.  But the Nazi world provided the first modern encounter that people had to face, in dealing with this troubling problem.  Confronted with the brutal inhumanity of men, in the imprisonment and abuse of other men is a problem this book presents in the format of those imprisoned on the island of Guernsey, during the Nazi occupation.  When confronted with her love of a Nazi officer, Vivienne finds that she has to figure out a way to live in a world that hates this officer for what he represents — while also coming to terms with the abuses his fellow Nazi’s are committing against other men.  Adding to her difficulties of not only seeing several of these atrocities of brutality committed in front of her, she also has heard the rumors making their way around this small island — making it impossible for her to ignore the horrors engulfing her world.  But her difficulty of reconciling the man she has fallen in love with, and the violence of the group as a whole is almost impossible, and succinctly identifies one of the biggest moral impasses that the Nazis created in the world.

Added to this was the difficulties that Gunther demonstrates, in trying to come to terms with these atrocities himself, and the story develops into a strong moral question on where is the battle for conscience fought?  In the community at large, or inside the mind of every individual?  Are we able to confront these demons as individual people — or are they larger problems that need to be countered through the community as a whole.  Leroy explores all of these questions in a powerful story of individuals, as well as their place in a society during a time when the make up of that society is being rewritten through force, and violent take over in a time of war.

The only problem I had with this book was some of the writing was a little less personal than I generally like.  The first part of the book is written in the first person, present point of view that almost gives the feeling of being told a story with very little emotion, or personal involvement.  However, as the story proceeds this is less noticeable as an awkward use of language, and only resurfaces at times throughout the novel.  There are also a couple of occasions where some of the phrase choices of the author had a more modern connotation, which for me tended to break the authentic feel of the setting — but they were not excessive, so it was easy to overlook.  This didn’t detract from the story at all, but it did give the feeling of more difficulty of flow in the story line at some parts, over others.

For more information about this book, and its author be sure to to visit the following websites:

Margaret Leroy Website

Oprah’s Interview with Margaret Leroy

Goodreads Book Site

When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, The Book Worm’s Library earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog by contributing to giveaways, postage, travel, and attending book industry related events. We appreciate all those that help to support our blog, and have provided links below for the direct links to this book.

A sweeping, emotionally riveting first novel—an enthralling family saga of Africa and America, doctors and patients, exile and home.

Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon at a mission hospital in Addis Ababa. Orphaned by their mother’s death in childbirth and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Yet it will be love, not politics—their passion for the same woman—that will tear them apart and force Marion, fresh out of medical school, to flee his homeland. He makes his way to America, finding refuge in his work as an intern at an underfunded, overcrowded New York City hospital. When the past catches up to him—nearly destroying him—Marion must entrust his life to the two men he thought he trusted least in the world: the surgeon father who abandoned him and the brother who betrayed him.

An unforgettable journey into one man’s remarkable life, and an epic story about the power, intimacy, and curious beauty of the work of healing others.

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

As a person that generally loves books, I frequently find myself explaining that though there may be things in every book I read that I don’t like, or agree with — for the most part I can always find things in every book that I enjoy as well.  And in approaching books with this type of mind set, I frequently forget the amazing experience that happens when I come across a book that simply rocks my world, and I fall in love with everything about it.  I also tend to forget that these are the books that make reading so worth the effort.  They are the ones that don’t just tell a story, or have great characters, or intriguing story lines.  Rather, these types of books are the ones that affects the readers universe, and makes them want to close the book only so they can start the book over again, and re-experience the joy of discovery once more.  Such is the case with this book.

I first came across this book in one of my online reading groups when a girl mentioned that she had started reading this book for a multiple time read, and that she simply had to read this book on a regular basis because she loved it so much.  I remember at the time thinking I needed to put it on my list of books to read.  When I did, I sought it out several times, and checked it out of the library on more than one occasion.  But, I have to admit that I rarely got past the first chapter — before becoming intimidated by the length of the book.  Generally, length doesn’t daunt me — but for some reason I kept resisting this one.  So, when I had a week off from work — I decided this was the week — and I was going to get through this one if it killed me.  And once I started — I couldn’t put it down.

The only thing that I found about this book that I could have skipped was the extensive medical scenes.  There are numerous surgeries in this book, and some of them are pretty graphic (the author being a successful surgeon), and if you are someone that has a weak stomach you may want to be warned about these scenes going in.  If some of these had been left out, it might have made the book a little shorter and less daunting.  However, I am uncertain if they could have been successfully left out, and still maintained the impact that the story carries.  There could probably be arguments made on both sides about this.  But that is the only complaint that I could have tried to make about this book.  Everything else about it is right at the top of my favorite book list.

I don’t know what kind of career Mr. Vergese had as a doctor — but I know that as an author he has an amazing gift for words.  His writing is simple and direct — but there isn’t the problem of cliche phrases and pat plot lines that are found in this first time novel.  He is simply a great story teller.  I loved the way he was able to create not just a story, but the characters, images, and an overall feel of the book that is haunting and elegant.

The interaction between the characters is also beautiful in its presentation.  Shiva and Marion are simply amazing in their creation, and development throughout the story.  And this story is probably as close as non-twin readers will ever come to knowing what it is like to have been born in this world with an identical twin, someone with whom you share a bond that is closer than anyone else will ever be in your lifetime.  Mr. Verghese has opened the mind and heart of these two boys and allowed us to understand, at least mentally, a portion of the bond that united these two boys — and it makes the story so much more poignant because of that development.

But the interaction of all the other characters cannot be discounted either.  The absent father, the surrogate parents, the nontraditional childhood — all of these things can speak volumes to all the different elements that go into making up the concept of family.  And yet — even with all these different elements in play — there is still the background on which they are all presented.  Everything from a lonely hospital run by foreigners and expatriates, all the way through the political upheavals of civil war, coup d’etats, and the dangers of military instability in a very volatile country.

And if that doesn’t pack this book enough to interest the reader, there is also the moral question of men’s capacity for self-destruction, in the face of everything he has worked to create.  How far are men willing to go for love, and when is love warped into something much more self destructive, and transitions into a devastating force.  And not just the love between a man and a woman — but the exploration of love between parent and child, friends, siblings, and all the other various definitions and types of love that we all have in each of our lives.

I can’t begin to recommend this book enough — and it is one that has rocketed to the top of my favorite book list.  It also is a great reminder of why I keep reading, and the enjoyment that comes from finding that one book that can change the world of the reader.

When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, The Book Worm’s Library earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog by contributing to giveaways, postage, travel, and attending book industry related events. We appreciate all those that help to support our blog, and have provided links below for the direct links to this book.

“When the renowned aviation hero and rabid isolationist Charles A. Lindbergh defeated Franklin Roosevelt by a landslide in the 1940 presidential election, fear invaded every Jewish household in America. Not only had Lindbergh, in a nationwide radio address, publicly blamed the Jews for selfishly pushing America toward a pointless war with Nazi Germany, but, upon taking office as the thirty-third president of the United States, he negotiated a cordial “understanding” with Adolf Hitler, whose conquest of Europe and whose virulent anti-Semitic policies he appeared to accept without difficulty.” What followed in America is the historical setting for this startling new book by Pulitzer Prize winner Philip Roth, who recounts what it was like for his Newark family – and for a million such families all over the country – during the menacing years of the Lindbergh presidency, when American citizens who happened to be Jews had every reason to expect the worst.

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

This is a book that I have mixed feelings about. There were two main problems I had with the book. First it is somewhat predictable — although interesting as an alternate history line type story. Second, the author has a tendency to digress into the minutia of the lives, and trivialities of the characters — which makes it difficult to follow the story line at times. However, this is also an interesting look into the possible.I have always wondered if something like an extreme dictatorship could ever happen here. Many people frequently look at me a little weird when I say that. But history is full of examples of decayed republics that have been overcome by a rising party that has a great deal of influence, with the middle class peoples. Rome, Germany, Greece. This is not an impossibility, and this book presents the possibility that does, in fact exist — even here.

From this stand point, I enjoyed this book. It is a critical look at a government that we like to believe it infallible — but is in reality walking a fine edge between freedom, and oppression. This book presents the what if’s of history — and points out that this type of thing, can in fact happen here. When the people abdicate their rights, and become complacent. Something goes wrong, and suddenly they are so unhappy about their circumstances that they are willing to turn to anything, or anyone that will offer them relief. This is a Faustian deal, which will ultimately bring them more oppression than they can ever imagine. But on the surface, it looks so good at the time, and the extremes offer so much. But I have always felt that the price is too high! I would rather experience a little suffering now, and exercise a little more self control, than sell out everything I have to a devil that cannot be controlled.

When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, The Book Worm’s Library earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog by contributing to giveaways, postage, travel, and attending book industry related events. We appreciate all those that help to support our blog, and have provided links below for the direct links to this book.