I loved this book from beginning to end. Natasha Solomons conveys a wonderful sense of the period and her descriptions of the Dorset countryside are just brilliant.
The story revolves around Elise, the youngest daughter of a middle class jewish family in Vienna, just before the Anschluss in 1938. She manages to get a visa to work as a servant in England and becomes a maid in a large country house in Tyneford. She makes her mark fairly quickly, not quite fitting in as a servant due to her background and although she is a hard worker she isn't quite accepted by the other members of the household. She is always living in hope that her parents will join her in England once their visas are ready but war breaks out and plans are abrubtly changed. Elise's hopes and dreams are dashed more than once but she is a strong personality and a fighter. The horrors of war are not depicted in graphic detail, but that makes the story far more poignant. The futility of war is all too apparent.
A superb novel and I look forward to more from Ms Solomons.



This post has been edited by SueK: 05 April 2011 - 06:18 PM

I'm intrigued by your review, so this is going straight onto my wish list.
(For wishlist read Amazon basket!

As I've mentioned before on another thread, I can't wait to get this book. I'm so pleased you liked it Sue, and I'm eagerly anticipating reading it, especially now I know it has descriptions of the Dorset countryside - my favourite place in the world, as my user name will attest!
There's no date on a Kindle version yet, but I'm hoping it will be as soon as the hardback is released, but it will depend on the cost as to whether I can afford it straight away :mrgreen:

Great review, Sue. I'll definitely add this to my wish list.

chesilbeach, on 05 April 2011 - 07:11 PM, said:
As I've mentioned before on another thread, I can't wait to get this book. I'm so pleased you liked it Sue, and I'm eagerly anticipating reading it, especially now I know it has descriptions of the Dorset countryside - my favourite place in the world, as my user name will attest!
There's no date on a Kindle version yet, but I'm hoping it will be as soon as the hardback is released, but it will depend on the cost as to whether I can afford it straight away :mrgreen:

I don't actually live in Dorset, but I spent a lot of holidays and weekends there when I was young, and we still visit (and holiday) there fairly regularly! Looking forward to the Kindle version of the book being available now though. :smile2: