Bookclub-in-a-Box Discusses The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Anne Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Guernsey is one of four British Channel Islands occupied by the Nazis for five years, 1940-1945. This extraordinary story is one that few people, except for historians, were aware of until Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows recreated the wartime atmosphere of postwar London and Guernsey through the journalist, Juliet Ashton, and her relationship with the Islanders.

It all started with a letter from a farmer, Dawsey Adams, who was trying to track down books by Charles Lamb. None of the Guernsey bookstores had survived the war and Dawsey was looking for help in locating more books by Lamb. The single book that Dawsey owned had the name and address that Juliet had once written on the inside page and so he wrote to her. His letter hinted at the existence of a strange book club called the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and its connection to a secret dinner of roast pig. Those two details alone guaranteed a spike of interest for Juliet. She responded and the rest is intriguingly revealed in the novel s subsequent correspondences between Juliet and the Guernsey inhabitants.

In its review of this special novel, Bookclub-in-a-Box considers the background and backdrop of the German occupation of the island; the ideas of collaboration, physical and psychological survival and behavior in wartime; the power of literature and the importance of literary classics; and, of course, the ultimate value and importance of belonging to a book club.

Every Bookclub-in-a-Box discussion guide includes complete coverage of the themes and symbols, writing style and interesting background information on the novel and the author.