I finished reading this book tonight. It is set in Guernsey and goes back and forth between two connected stories, one narrated by a teenage girl in the 80s, the other tells the story of the generation before her during the German occupation. It’s worth watching this video of the author talking about the book, not least for the scenes of Guernsey to spark the imagination:

I didn’t know a thing about Guernsey until I read this book so it was fascinating to discover what had happened there during WWII. The teenage narrator’s voice was so realistic that I found myself cringing as it brought back moments from my own teenage years. The story of the girl’s family during the Occupation seemed a bit cloudy to me at first and not nearly as engaging as the teenager’s story, however all became clear towards the end. The conclusions of both stories were satisfying to me and I liked the slightly menacing tone at the finish.

On the other hand my enjoyment was muted for a number of reasons. Firstly, both threads took a long time to build up any kind of pace. I wasn’t even properly engaged until over halfway though. Secondly, the story set during the Occupation was peppered with patois (based on French) that I mostly didn’t understand. Thirdly there were footnotes all over the place and with the book already flitting between two stories the footnotes made it feel even more disjointed.

I’m glad I read The Book of Lies as I learned a something about Guernsey but I can’t say the book has left it’s mark much beyond that.

(18th in 2012)