Review: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows, Paul Boehmer (Narrator), Susan Duerden (Narrator), Rosalyn Landor (Goodreads Author) (Narrator), John Lee(Narrator), Juliet Mills (Narrator)
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I highly recommended the audio book. The multiple narrators are excellent. This is a great "read", I read a bunch of reviews where the reader was confused about who was writing which letter, and the multiple narrators of the audio eliminated that issue. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm hoping to pick up a paper copy as I loved this so much.  This fulfills my book of letters prompt for the Popsugar Reading Challenge.  I would have never picked this up if it hadn't been so highly recommended in the Goodreads group for this prompt, and I'm so glad I was able to get a copy of the audiobook from my library.  This challenge has introduced me to so many wonderful books I would have never read otherwise.

This takes place after the German occupation of the English Channel Island of Guernsey and is written as a series of letters that take place between Juliette, an author, and her many friends that she has and makes along the way. Juliette corresponds with her best friend Sophie, her publisher Sidney, a man named Dawsey, and the many inhabitants of Guernsey.  Dawsey came across a book Juliette once owned and writes her a letter and they become pen pals. Through Dawsey, Juliette begins corresponding with the residents of the island of Guernsey in order learn about their Literary Society and hear their stories, they write to each other for years, and Juliette decides she would like to write a book about them and their experience under the rule of Nazi troops.  I very much appreciated the historical aspect of the story, there was respect payed to the very serious nature of the Nazi occupation.  I felt like I was transported to the various locations mentioned in the story, which is hard to do in a book told in letter format.  There were some very sad parts to the story, and I was heartbroken like the rest of cast of characters.  Much of the book was very funny overall and I laughed outloud so many times between the funny things people thought and wrote in their letters.  It was very realistic for the time, and what someone would actually write down in a letter when phone calls weren't the normal form of communication.  The characters were so well done, I felt like they were all my friends and as I was personally writing and receiving letters from a beloved friend

I loved that this was read by multiple narrators, as I always knew which character's letter was being read. They were really able to capture the emotions of the letters. There were really funny parts, and when they were talking about the Nazi occupation and concentration camps it was very sad and heavy, as it should have been. I felt they paid the proper respect to the sensitive topic. The vast cast of characters was a riot overall and while I was skeptical at first I fell in love with them and couldn't stop listening. I grieved when they did, I laughed when they did, I was cheering when things went well for the characters, I felt like I was transported and there with them. I had to listen to the next letter and find out what was going to happen.