Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Powerful and very accomplished debut novel., 11 Mar 2008
This is an extremely powerful story set in the imagined backdrop of an invaded and Nazi-occupied Britain, from 1944 onwards... an alternative outcome for the Second World War which could quite conceivably have come true. After failed D-Day landings the German invasion begins in earnest on British soil and this story unfolds as the country gradually becomes another occupied territory of the Third Reich - herein lies its power and horror.
One morning, in one of the most remote valleys in the Black Mountains on the English-Welsh border, twenty-six-year-old Sarah Lewis awakes unusually late in the day to find her husband has disappeared. Suspicions are confirmed as all the women in the valley meet to find that all seven men in the valley have literally vanished overnight. The women fear that their husbands have joined an underground resistance group... and they are left to tend their farms, taking on the full heavy workload previously undertaken by the men.
Fear and mistrust envelops them when a German patrol arrives in the valley on an important mission, until an uneasy truce is formed from a mutual need for help during the harsh frozen winter months in this isolated valley of the Black Mountains. The men in the patrol are war-weary and glad of their respite from the fighting; the women are struggling with their workloads.... both sides have a tendency to forget that there is a war on, and this could be a very dangerous thing to forget indeed.
Owen Sheers (also poet) writes in a beautifully lyrical way, vividly bringing to life the Olchon valley. The power of the novel lies in its ability to shock, as the slow realisation gradually dawns that this outcome could have been the one to come true... An idea that stays with you long after turning the last page. I did hestiate before giving it 5 stars because I didn't find it quite as compelling a read in the first half, as in the second; the pace was slightly lacking. However, what it loses in pace it really does make up for in prose and description.
A good read for anyone. I'd especially recommend it for young students of the Second World War, if only to see the Nazi occupation of other European countries in a different light, and perhaps even bring their history more vividly alive.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Realistic alternate history, 16 Mar 2008
The women of a remote Welsh valley wake up one morning in 1944 and discover that their husbands have left their farms in the night. The German Army has invaded Britain and the men have been recruited for a guerilla resistance force to impede the enemy's progress. A German patrol, led by Albrecht Wolfram, is sent to the valley by the SS to retrieve an ancient map hidden there. The soldiers are exhausted, and, when the tide of war moves on, and they are forgotten, they are content to wait for further instructions. Gradually, the women, led by Sarah Lewis and Maggie Jones, come to an accommodation with the Germans. They work together over a harsh winter to keep the farms going, and become wary friends. But the outside world must intrude and the idyll will end. This is a beautifully-written first novel by a writer well-known for his poetry. The plot could have become a cliché, but Sheers avoids this, while creating a plausible picture of an alternative history of Europe.
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17 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An instant classic and one of the best books I've ever read. , 1 Jun 2007
Although not the type of book I'd normally buy (my authors of choice being Jonathan Carroll, Christopher Priest and Roddy Doyle), Resistance won me over from the first page. I cannot praise this novel highly enough.
Owen Sheers' debut novel is a truly stunning read. A wonderful story, filled with characters you really care about. Sheers' prose is poetic and he certainly deserves a nod, come Booker nomination time.
I urge anyone to give this novel a try - you certainly won't be disappointed. I'd also also recommend Peter Ho Davies' The Welsh Girl - another wonderful debut novel set in a similar environment.
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