Books are the answer to everything. Need friends? Join a book club! Need to look up pregnancy because you're unexpectedly expecting and your mom didn't tell you anything? The library has a book for that! Need something to do while waiting for an air raid to finish? Read a book! Need to leave home to get away from overbearing parents? Get a job at a library!
I think you get the idea.
The Underground Library by Jennifer Ryan takes place in London, England during World War II. The residents of Bethnal Green are forced to evacuate their homes and take shelter in the Underground Tube Station whenever an air raid siren goes off. And then when one of those air raids results in the local library building being bombed, new deputy librarian Juliet has a great idea to salvage the books and take the library underground.
Juliet is just one of the characters in this wonderful work of historical fiction. There's also Juliet's landlady, Mrs. Ottley, and Mrs. Ottley's nephew, Sebastian. Once upon a time, Sebastian's and Juliet's parents tried to set up the two of them, but Juliet found Sebastian too much of a lady's man. But war has a way of changing people.
There's also Sofie, a Jewish refugee all alone in this new city. The only thing Sofie wants is to find her sister, Rachel, and have her family be together again.
Then there's Katie, who works at the library and finds out that her soldier fiance is presumed dead. THEN she finds out that she's pregnant! Now how did that happen? Ha ha.
No matter what these women are dealing with - deadbeat boyfriends, cheating fathers, uppity society women, and annoying bosses - they have the library and each other. You'll be rooting for all of the characters and the library, as well!
I've been reading a lot of World War II historical fiction, and I have to say, sometimes I wonder what else can people write about in this time period? So I appreciate books like this that enlighten me about a previously unknown (to me) aspect of history.
The Underground Library is published by Ballantine Books and will be available to purchase on March 12, 2024. I received a free e-ARC.
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