Coventry by Helen Humphreys

Coventry by Helen Humphreys

Fiction, Paperback 180 pgs.

Harper Collins

This was my first novel by Helen Humphreys. I have read her previous book, The Frozen Thames, which deserves its place as a #1 national bestseller in non-fiction. This woman certainly knows her history.

In deceptively simple language Humphreys here portrays the night of November 14, 1940 and the bombing of Coventry , England during World War Two. Harriet has been a widow since the First World War. Through her eyes we experience unending hours of destruction and terror, but there is kindness and love too. She starts out on fire watch on the roof of Coventry Cathedral, which does not survive, and ends up with Maeve who searches for her son throughout the city that is burning and reduced to rubble.

This is a novel with heart, a story of shared tragedy. So much is lost to the people of Coventry, life will never be the same for any of them. Humphreys' writing is beautiful, as when Maeve, rushing home from the bomb shelter hoping to find her son there, sees tin soldiers in formation on his bedroom windowsill and realizes that they are young Jeremy's " last station of childhood ". He had tried to enlist but was turned down because he is colour blind. He was on fire watch with Harriet and they spent some hours helping with the injured where they could and dodging falling incendiaries and collapsing buildings in an attempt to get home.

The details of the history are accurate and the novel ends with an epilogue about the dedication of the newly rebuilt cathedral some twenty years after the war. I wanted to begin reading this book again as soon as I'd finished it, not something that usually happens with me. I will be rereading it to enjoy the way language is used in the story, and I look forward to reading her other novels. A very satisfying read that I can recommend to everyone. Five stars.

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Thank you to Deanna at Harper Collins Canada for providing me with a review copy.

Other Harper Collins books I have enjoyed recently:

Breath**** by Tim Winton (Australia)
Day**** by A.L.Kennedy(UK)
Broken Colors**** by Michele Zackheim (US)
Skeletons at the Feast**** by Chris Bohjaian (US)
Atmospheric Disturbances**** by Rivka Galchen
The Letter Opener***+ by Kyo Maclear
The Line Painter**** by Claire Cameron
Run by Ann Patchett****
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett****
The Yiddish Policemen's Union**** by Michael Chabon

Letters Between Us by Linda Rader Overman

Review and Giveaway

Letters Between Us by Linda Rader Overman

Fiction, paperback, 165 pgs. 2008

Plain View Press


This is a story told through letters between two women. From 1963 to 1989 they are friends, keeping diaries and writing letters, sharing everything through three decades of growth and change. The book begins with the loss of one of them, Katherine, tragically. Her friend Laura comes into possession of all their correspondence in a box that Katherine had kept, along with her diaries. Katherine had problems her friends and family could not seem to share or understand and the details of her death are baffling to everyone.

Laura, depite problems in her own marriage and a mother suffering from dementia who calls her constantly in a state of confusion, is determined to take a few days away. She's compelled to sort and read all the letters between them to find out what she may have overlooked. Did she miss Katherine's pain and turmoil or was it there between the lines? Might Laura have foreseen some things and helped her friend more? Or was she too busy living the high life to pay attention to what her friend was saying. It's natural to wonder. So through Laura we read the letters together, in the order that they were written, starting in grade school through high school and the college years. They wrote to each other even when together in school or the same town. Then on to new adventures in living, loving, and loss.

Katherine was the straighter arrow of the two. It was Lauren who took risks with drugs, sex, drinking and partying. She thought she might be the one to run into trouble but never Katharine, who wouldn't even try drugs. And while she knew K. had lived with abusive and alcoholic parents, she never saw the depth of her friends sadness. She discovers through the letters that things were happening to Katherine that she never fully realized. If Katharine ended up depressed and under treatment toward the end it seems she had reason. Passionate or tender, poignant or sometimes dark, the story of their lives unfolds for us, letter by letter. The novel is rich with details and Overman's writing sets the mood perfectly. Highly recommended.

Linda Rader Overman's web page: Letters Between Us.

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I will be giving my gently read copy of Letters Between Us to one of my readers.

To enter do as many of the following as you like. Three chances to win.

1) Tell us the best book of epistolary fiction, a story told entirely or for the most part through personal letters, that you've ever read, for one entry.

2) Sign up to subscribe or follow my blog, Fresh Ink Books, and I'll give you an entry.

3) Blog about this giveaway and put a link back to it and I'll give you an entry. If you don't have an blog, email 3 friends telling them about this giveaway and copying me at sfuhringer (at) sympatico (dot) ca.

Entry is open to everyone until midnight Sunday, January 25, 2009.

Be sure to leave an email address if you don't have a blog where I can contact you.

Winner will be announced on Monday, January 26 , 2009.

Giller Prize longlist 2008

The jury selected 15 titles out of 95 books, submitted by 38 publishers from every region of Canada. The longlist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize includes three former winners of the Canadian prize for literary fiction. The list will be winnowed down to a shortlist of five on October 7. The winner will be announced on November 11.

Award-winning author and previous Giller Prize winner Margaret Atwood; Liberal MP, Foreign Affairs critic and author Bob Rae; and renowned international journalist, professor and author Colm Toibin comprised the 2008 jury.

This year marks the 15th anniversary of the prize.
From a highly competitive field, the Scotiabank Giller jury has selected the following titles for this year’s longlist:




David Adams Richards for The Lost Highway






David Bergen for The Retreat






Joseph Boyden for Through Black Spruce






Austin Clarke for More






Anthony De Sa for Barnacle Love, short stories






Emma Donaghue for The Sealed Letter






Marina Endicott for Good to a Fault






Steven Galloway for The Cellist of Sarajevo






Rawi Hage for Cockroach






Kenneth J. Harvey for Blackstrap Hawco






Patrick Lane for Red Dog, Red Dog






Pasha Malla for The Withdrawal Method, short stories






Paul Quarrington for The Ravine






Nino Ricci for The Origin of Species






Mary Swan for The Boys in the Trees





Of the longlist, the jury writes:

“These fifteen books vary widely in technique, in setting, and in tone — from the historical to the contemporary, from the comic to the satiric to the tragic, from the local to the international. Nothing unites them but the jury's belief in their accomplishment: each contributes something fresh, original, thoughtful, or vital to the practice of fiction.”
The Scotiabank Giller Prize awards $50,000 annually to the author of the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English and $5,000 to each of the finalists. The Scotiabank Giller Prize is named in honour of the late literary journalist Doris Giller and was founded in 1994 by her husband Toronto businessman Jack Rabinovitch.
October 7, 2008 Shortlist Announcement
November 11, 2008 Gala Evening and Winner Announcement
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I have read The Boys in the Trees***** by Mary Swan. I have started The Cellist of Sarajevo and have Cockroach by Rawi Hage, Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden, and The Lost Highway by David Adam Richards in my TBR pile.

If you have reviewed any of these books let us know by commenting or sending me a link to your review.
So, which have you read? Which do you plan to read? Have any interesting information about any of them or their authors?

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer - Review

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Fiction, Paperback, 274 pgs.

Dial Press (July 2008)

I really enjoyed this story about England's Guernsey Island in the years following its occupation by the Germans during World War Two. The personal experiences and memories of several islanders in letters to a English writer tell the story and it's a very interesting one. Rationing and food shortages, getting along with the Germans-or not, subversive acts, serious and not so serious, the entire absence of children for two years; they had been shipped to the mainland for safety before the invasion. These are some of the details that make this a fascinating and sometimes heart-breaking, sometimes humourous story.

The title refers to a book group, started inadvertently under clandestine circumstances that lasted throughout the war and beyond. This is one book group I'd like to have belonged to. Interesting literary references, lots of history, a warm and poignant story of hope and heartbreak, I liked it all. A lovely cover too. A nice gift book, especially for those with memories of the time period. Four and a half stars out of five. Highly recommended.

Also reviewed by wordlily and Embejo.

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Mary Ann Shaffer worked as an editor, a librarian and in bookshops. This was her first book , written with the help of her niece Annie Barrows who is is a well-known author of childrens books in California.

Thank you to Dial Press and LibraryThing for providing me with a review copy.

If you've read or reviewed this book please leave comments or links. I'd love to read them.

Next review: A Jerusalem Tale by Haim Sabato.
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