The Air Raid Library Book Club of London – Annie Lyons

Submitted: 6th July 2023

This title alone made me want to read this. Book club during war time? Inspired by a real story? A bookshop tucked away up Cecil Court in London, the home of Goldsboro Books? Where do I sign up????

BookTrail Travel to The Air Raid Book Club

Boarding Pass Information: London

Author guide: Annie Lyons

Genre: historical fiction inspired by real life events

Food and drink to accompany: rations only

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BookTrail Travel to The Air Raid Book Club

The Air Raid Book Club is a unique story and a very special one. It gave me vibes of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society but with added heartache and even more raw emotions.

Gertie, a grieving widow is trying to run her and her late husband’s bookshop on her own. She is a kind soul and so when there is a volunteer program asking for people to take in Jewish refugees, she does so. She needs the company to be honest as she is grieving and is lonely. Little does she know that she will get a teenager..but that this teenager is just the tonic she and the community needs.

BookTrail Travel to The Air Raid Book Club

The community fear the sirens and often have to run for cover in the shelters below ground. There is a place of safety in the basement of the bookshop and this is where the magic of this story takes place. Despite the bombs and the danger, books really do become a place of refuge in the only way books can be. My heart soared at some of the passages and I felt it heavy during others. What a story and what a way of telling it.

I am bereft now to have left the magic of this story behind. Bereft I tell you. Despite it being a war story, this is so much more. It shows how books can change your life and shape the world around you. How friends are ofen your real family. There could have been a campfire in that book cricle and it could not have generated any more warmth.

LOVE IT. Even though I think Annie Lyons should get commission from Kleenex from now on.