The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Record details
- ISBN: 9781415954423 (sound recording : OverDrive Audio Book)
- ISBN: 1415954429 (sound recording : OverDrive Audio Book)
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Physical Description:
electronic resource
remote - Publisher: [New York] : Books on Tape, 2008.
Content descriptions
General Note: | Downloadable audio file. Title from: Title details screen. Unabridged. Duration: 8:06:22. |
System Details Note: | Requires OverDrive Media Console Requires OverDrive Media Console (file size: 116491 KB). Mode of access: World Wide Web. |
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Women authors -- Fiction Book clubs (Discussion groups) -- Fiction London (England) -- History -- 20th century -- Fiction England -- Fiction |
Genre: | DOWNLOADABLE AUDIOBOOK. Epistolary fiction. Audiobooks. |
Other Formats and Editions
Electronic resources
- AudioFile Reviews : AudioFile Reviews 2008 October/November
The curious listener will be intrigued with this audiobook, from the origin of its title to the final letter in this epistolary marvel, which is truly perfect on audio. A most unlikely and unexpected book club is established during the German occupation of Guernsey, in the British Channel Islands. Five narrators bring alive the letters exchanged between a young author, Juliet Ashton (Susan Duerdin), and her London publisher, as well as her "new" friends from the isle of Guernsey. The unfolding of the story through the different voices is completely charming, joyful, sad, and uplifting. The astute casting and scintillating performances by John Lee, Juliet Mills, and Paul Boehmer bring honed, authentic speech and manners to the characters. A special nod to Rosalyn Landor, who reads the letters of Isola, the herbalist and would-be Miss Marple, and other quirky island characters. Really-every one is a delight. R.F.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine - AudioFile Reviews : AudioFile Reviews 2008 December/January 2009
The curious listener will be intrigued with this audiobook, from the origin of its title to the final letter in this epistolary marvel, which is truly perfect on audio. A most unlikely and unexpected book club is established during the German occupation of Guernsey, in the British Channel Islands. Five narrators bring alive the letters exchanged between a young author, Juliet Ashton (Susan Duerden), and her London publisher, as well as her "new" friends from the isle of Guernsey. The unfolding of the story through the different voices is completely charming, joyful, sad, and uplifting. The astute casting and scintillating performances by John Lee, Juliet Mills, and Paul Boehmer bring honed, authentic speech and manners to the characters. A special nod to Rosalyn Landor, who reads the letters of Isola, the herbalist and would-be Miss Marple, and other quirky island characters. Really--every one is a delight. R.F.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2008 June #2
The German occupation of the Channel Islands, recalled in letters between a London reporter and an eccentric gaggle of Guernsey islanders.This debut by an "aunt-niece" authorial team presents itself as cozy fiction about comfortably quirky people in a bucolic setting, but it quickly evinces far more serious, and ambitious, intent. In 1946, Juliet, famous for her oxymoronic wartime humor column, is coping with life amid the rubble of London when she receives a letter from a reader, Dawsey, a Guernsey resident who asks her help in finding books by Charles Lamb. After she honors his request, a flurry of letters arrive from Guernsey islanders eager to share recollections of the German occupation of the islands. (Readers may be reminded of the PBS series, Island at War.) When the Germans catch some islanders exiting from a late-night pig roast, the group, as an excuse for violating curfew and food restrictions, invents a book club. The "Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" is born, affording Guernseyites an excuse to meet and share meager repasts. (The Germans have confiscated all the real food.) Juliet's fractious correspondents, including reputed witch Isola, Booker, a Jewish valet who masquerades as a Lord, and many other L&PPPS members, reveal that the absent founder of their society, Elizabeth, loved Christian, a German captain. No one accuses Elizabeth of collaboration (except one crotchety islander, Adelaide) because Christian was genuinely nice. An act of bravery caused Elizabeth's deportation to France, and her whereabouts remain unknown. The Society is raising four-year-old Kit, Elizabeth's daughter by Christian. To the consternation of her editor and friend, Sidney, Juliet is entertaining the overtures, literary and romantic, of a dashing but domineering New York publisher, Markham. When Juliet goes to Guernsey, some hard truths emerge about Elizabeth's fate and defiant courage. Elizabeth and Juliet are appealingly reminiscent of game but gutsy '40s movie heroines.The engrossing subject matter and lively writing make this a sure winner, perhaps fodder for a TV series.Agent: Liza Dawson/Liza Dawson Associates Copyright Kirkus 2008 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved. - Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2008 October #2
Read LJ 's 9/9/08 starred audio review of this debut title, currently a best seller in hardcover, which was recently optioned for film, at xpressreview.notlong.com .
[Page 104]. Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information. - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2008 September #5
Shaffer's debut novel, written with her niece Barrow, is an original account of one writer's relationship with a member of a unique book club formed as an alibi to protect its members from arrest at the hands of the Nazis during WWII. With a small cast of gifted narrators including Paul Boehmer, Susan Duerdan, John Lee, Rosalyn Landor and the enjoyable Juliet Mills, this production is first-class from top to bottom. The narrators' British dialects, each quite regional and equally as different as they are ear-pleasing, serve the story well and allow Shaffer's words to leap from the page into the hearts and minds of her listeners. The final result is an almost theatrical experience with a plethora of enthusiastic performances. A Dial Press hardcover (Reviews, Apr. 21).(July)
[Page 78]. Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.