Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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26 of 29 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 13 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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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well written but strangely pedestrian, 26 Feb 2008
I think is a very well written and very carefully written book, albeit one that ultimately made little impact on me.
The author's poetry background shows through in his writing, which is highly evocative of the Welsh valley in which this book is set and the attitude of the women who live there. Told in the third person mainly through the perspective of Sarah and Maggie (two of the farmer's wives left behind when their husbands leave to form an insurgency group to counter the German invasion) and Captain Albrecht Wolfram, a German officer sent on a secret mission to the valley by the Gestapo, the plot draws together their experiences and desires as each character struggles to come to terms with the war.
Sheers has clearly done his research on the period and I found his view of an alternate history where the D-Day landings fail, the Russians lose Stalingrad and the Americans pull out of the European war to focus on the Japanese a credible and interesting one. However, one of the quote blurbs on the front page describes this as a "sometimes frightening thriller" and I found it misleading. In my opinion, the plot is not fast-paced enough to be classed as a thriller as Sheers is too considered in his approach to his characters and too careful in setting out how they deal with their world and whilst there is a climax of sorts at the end, Sheers decides to leave the ending open, which I found rather frustrating.
There are some fine moments in the text - notably the segments dealing with George Bowen and his dealings with Tommy Atkins, which I think are the tensest segments of the book.
However, I found it unfortunate that Sheers never really resolves what happens to the farmers who leave their wives behind. I appreciate that by implying their fate and leaving it open to question, Sheers is putting the reader in the same position as the wives, but I still found it frustrating. Also frustrating is the way he draws Albrecht and Sarah together towards the end of the book, which I felt came a little too far out of left field to be truly believable.
Ultimately, I think that the book is a good literary addition to the alternate history genre with a strong emphasis on time and period, but I suspect that people looking for a more thrilling, fast-paced read will be disappointed.
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