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This book was chosen by one of my book clubs, and evidently I was the only person who was not particularly enthused about it. This book concerns the German occupation of the Island of Guernsey during the Second World War. The letter writing form (epistolary form) was tedious to me, although the author(s) did a good job of reflecting the letter writing form of the time. But I had difficulty in sorting out what was happening as well as who the letter writers were and the relationships among them. The letters--from a variety of sources, including a group of Guernsey residents--also contain much interesting anecdotal references to great figures of literature - which I found a bit stuffy. I am pretty well educated, but I never read half of the people mentioned (e.g. Charles Lamb) and some of the references were lost on me. The letters build up, from various points of view to a central theme, which is about Elizabeth, a dead woman who has a child by a German military doctor during the occupation. Although her story is compelling, she is too good to be true. In fact all of the characters, except for Adelaide, were all so goody-goody, that it became cloying.
Although from what I can tell from my own research it seems that they did get the history of the Guernsey occupation by the Nazis correct, the novel was otherwise unrealistic (including the goody-goody part). Who after WW II could have jumped a boat to visit a friend in Australia at the drop of a hat?? NOT.
As I reached the last quarter of the book, I felt the plot incidents were overly contrived, leading up to a conclusion that any reader could see coming a mile away. Way too pat and neat and happily ever after. I gave the book two stars because it was OK, but I sure am not certain that it should have been at the top of the New York Times best-seller list.