Tag Archives: wartime romance

#BookReview ‘The Silent Resistance’ by Anna Normann #WW2

1 Reply

The German occupation of Norway is a new World War Two location for me so I was looking forward to reading The Silent Resistance by Anna Normann. It tells the story of three generations of women in one family who live outside the town of Haugesund. Anna NormannAnni Odland’s husband Lars is a seaman on the Atlantic convoys. She survives day to day with her young daughter Ingrid in an isolated house outside town, and Guri, Anni’s goat-keeping mother-in-law who lives at a nearby farm. They are tough women. Haugesund is a coastal place where wives are used to the absences of their seafaring men. But Lars was at sea when the Germans attacked and hasn’t been home since. This a woman’s story of bravery under duress, of resisting the enemy despite living under occupation, being at constant risk of danger or betrayal, while caring for her innocent but curious daughter. Woven through its pages is the eternal wartime conflict of romance.
The ugliness of war contrasts starkly with the beauty of the Norwegian coast. Normann examines what constitutes loyalty, and betrayal, in wartime circumstances. The family’s life changes when a German is billetted at Anni and Ingrid’s home. Anni’s story is intense, showing her loyalty to Ingrid and her determination to continue her work with the local resistance group. But she has limited power, must take decisions in impossible circumstances and decide between compromises that only have bad outcomes. A brave woman. At all times she seeks to protect Ingrid’s innocence, an almost impossible task when children are plunged into such a nightmare scenario. When the war ends, Ingrid is seven and can remember nothing but war. Anni has disappeared and no one can answer Ingrid’s questions.
The first three-quarters of the wartime story is told in detail, the later explanation of the decades after the war in contrast seems rushed. Action takes place from the 1940s to 1980s. Viewpoints are concentrated on Anni and Ingrid at varying points through the decades, often going back and forth in time. A chronological order might have maintained for longer the mystery of Anni’s destiny and explore the impact on the family of Anni and Lars’ decisions. I also longed to hear a contrasting point of view from outside the family, to add depth to the portrayal of life under German rule and an outsider’s view of the family.
The Silent Resistance is an emotional story of the cruelty of war and the separations it forces. Even those who fight for their country are not immune to unjustified wrongs. There is a heartbreaking twist that defies belief that it actually happened. The Author’s Note at the end supplies vital historical context.

If you like this, try:-
‘The Collaborator’s Daughter’ by Eva Glyn
‘The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society’ by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
‘Daughters of War’ by Dinah Jefferies #1DAUGHTERSOFWAR

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE SILENT RESISTANCE by Anna Normann https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-8zv via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Lucinda Riley & Harry Whittaker

#BookReview ‘The Sicilian Secret’ by Angela Petch #WW2 #romance

Leave a reply

Angela Petch knows how to tell a good World War Two romance. Her latest The Sicilian Secret blends a wartime romance with a 1973 mystery about parentage. There are lots of surprises along the way and a fascinating portrayal of Sicily during the Allied invasion of 1943. Angela Petch When Paige Caister’s beloved Aunt Florence dies suddenly, she inherits not only Squirrels cottage in Suffolk where Paige grew up with Flo, but also a box of mementoes. There is a necklace, a note to Paige which is unfinished and promising to ‘tell you everything,’ and an old airmail letter addressed to someone called Joy. This box sets Paige off on a journey of discovery, away from the life she thought she wanted.
The two major locations in this novel – rural Suffolk, and the south-eastern corner of Sicily – are vividly drawn. Mourning her aunt, Paige is thankful for the love of the Suffolk countryside, the trees and foxes, the kingfishers, that Flo gave her. As Paige follows the at first incomprehensible clues, she finds herself heading for Sicily seeking answers to questions she doesn’t really know.
In 1927 we meet a young Italian-British man, born in London to parents who recently emigrated from Sicily. Savio, called a ‘dirty Tally’ by schoolmates, wonders what it would be like to be a proper Italian, born in Sicily. When war breaks out, Savio and his parents are interned as ‘enemy aliens’ on the Isle of Man. Telling everyone that he was born in London and is English, Savio is ignored. He responds with his fists and is punished. His luck changes when a sympathetic British officer recognises his courage, resilience and determination.
In 1943, Lady Joy Harrison, leaves her over-bearing mother to take up an offer with a secret Government organisation. Tall and not ‘a girl’s girl,’ Joy’s fluent Italian leads her to a tough outdoor base in Scotland where she meets a young Italian determined to prove himself. What happens next is a time-old story of love in wartime; intense, real, fleeting, full of love and despair. Two characters, bonded by their difficulty in fitting in with society’s expectations, must decide whether to risk being true to themselves.
This is dual-timeline novel told from four perspectives; Joy, Savio, Paige and Florence. The story moves slowly at first as the author builds the picture, but the pace picks up as Paige’s investigation takes her to Italy. The ending is rather abrupt and the mystery perhaps predictable, but the journey of the wartime characters is engaging. The need to find out what happened to Joy and Savio made me read the book quickly over a weekend. This is a book to sink into and lose yourself in.

Here are my reviews of other novels also by Angela Petch:-
THE GIRL WHO ESCAPED
THE POSTCARD FROM ITALY
THE TUSCAN SECRET

If you like this, try:-
‘The Collaborator’s Daughter’ by Eva Glyn
‘The Secret Shore’ by Liz Fenwick
‘Love in a Time of War’ by Adrienne Chin #1FrySisters

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE SICILIAN SECRET by Angela Petch https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-89Y via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Robert Thorogood