Why a Booktrail?
1944: In a clearing deep within an English forest two lost souls meet for the first time.
Shelter
What you need to know before your trail
Connie Granger has escaped the devastation of her bombed out city home. She has found work in the Women’s Timber Corps, and for her, this remote community must now serve a secret purpose.
Seppe, an Italian prisoner of war, is haunted by his memories. But in the forest camp, he finds a strange kind of freedom.
Their meeting signals new beginnings. In each other they find the means to imagine their own lives anew, and to face that which each fears the most.
But outside their haven, the world is ravaged by war and old certainties are crumbling. Both Connie and Seppe must make a life-defining choice which threatens their fragile existence. How will they make sense of this new world, and find their place within it? What does it mean to be a woman, or a foreign man, in these days of darkness and new light?
Travel Guide
Coventry and the Forest of Dean
Young Connie lives in Coventry during WWII and like any young girl is determined to enjoy life as much as she can. But on a night out, her life changes for ever and her landscape is hopefully going to be her salvation and her chance of a fresh start
Deciding to work on the land for the good of the country, Connie moves to work for the Forestry Commission. There are many people required to work on the land, chopping trees and managing the forests for the war effort. Lumberjacks and Lumberjills as they are called in this novel have a very important role to play. She is billetted to a house in the forest and for now, this is her life her reality and her hardship.
The forest is also a place of nature, of growth and of new beginnings – appropriate therefore for her chance meeting with Seppe, an Italian prisoner of war, whose refuge for now is amongst the dense trees and the hard work.
Booktrailer Review
Susan: @thebooktrailer
What a fascinating read -a slow read that like the trees in the forest, draw you into the shadows and envelopes you right into the heart of the story. You can feel the trees almost like characters grasping and grappling you with their spindly branches, trapping you, tripping you up as you try to work hard and keep your secrets hidden. Imagine then a new relationship in the midst of so much naked despair? Chopping trees, clearing the beauty of England when there were so many scars on the English landscape already.
It’s a very unique angle on ww2 and the insights into what the war effort could really mean. The men and women who carried out such thankless tasks,such hard work..
This is apparently a debut – the sparse debut and the assured writing for me said that it was more.What Sarah follows with this is definately going on my TBR pile!
Where Next?
