Private Peaceful – Michael Morpurgo

“I’ve seen larks over no-mans land. I always found hope in that.”

I read this book because I was telling a boy I baby-sit for how I had suddenly found myself extremely moved by books about the war. I recommended he read The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and, in return, he gave me this book to borrow.

Tommo Peaceful is just a child when the story begins. His father has passed away and he lives in England with his mother and his older brothers, Charlie and Joe. On his first day at ‘big school’, Tommo meets Molly. He falls instantly in love with her.

As Tommo, Molly and Charlie grow into young adults together, Tommo realises that his brother has fallen in love with the same girl. Worse than that, Molly returns his love. In a moment of madness and full of eagerness to prove that he is not a little boy anymore, Tommo signs up to join the army. Desperate to project his brother, Charlie signs up too.

From the start we are aware that things go wrong for Charlie and Tommo. Parts of the book are written in the present tense, whilst the rest is reflecting on occasions from their childhood. Tommo’s musings over his current situation divulge enough that we know that he has found himself in an incredulous situation, the details of which are not revealed until the last few pages. I anticipated predictability, but the ending is politely surprising, desperately sad and, as is mostly the case with novels for young people, there is teaching behind it. I don’t want to divulge too much more in case I ruin it for anybody.

This is a novel for older children, so it’s easy to read. If you had a day you could probably manage it in one. Even as a ‘grown up’, I can confess that I did learn something from it.

It isn’t so overly horrific that you couldn’t give it to your teenager. I think it would probably make them think more carefully about the sacrifice boys not much older than them made during the war and, in my opinion, that can only be a good thing.

If you’re an avid reader then I’m not sure you will like this, unless you are extremely open minded or a teenage boy. If you don’t plan on reading it but you have been left intrigued as to what happened, then feel free to ask me about the story. Or Google it. 

On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan

"This is how the entire course of a life can be changed. By doing nothing."

I picked up this book because it was by Ian McEwan and I loved his book Atonement.

I hadn’t ever heard of ‘On Chesil Beach’. It seems to have gone under the radar a little bit, but it is on Goodreads.com and it has some really good reviews. For the first hundred or so pages I had no idea why that was. By the last few it had become apparent.

Florence and Edward are newly weds. They have been dating for around a year and are completely in love. But both are stifling secrets. Those secrets are easily discussed but potentially detrimental to the consummation of their marriage.

Over ninety percent of this book takes place across a two-hour period. During that time we are granted access to Florence and Edward’s inner thoughts. We witness their individual battles with their feelings on sex and their misconceptions about one another. It is really quite fascinating, if not a little bit frustrating.

If it weren’t for the last chapter I wouldn’t think that this book was half as good, but McEwan ties it all up in expertly. The point of this novel, which has remained utterly hidden throughout the first one hundred and fifty pages, only makes itself apparent in the last ten.

It is an urging to avoid secrecy and dishonesty in your relationship. It is a reminder that saying what is on your lips is easier than saying what is on your mind, but can sometimes have drastic and irreparable consequences.

Just as with Atonement, it is a pleading encouragement to be honest about what you know, especially concerning the people who need to know it.

A quick and easy read, with a good, strong, moral message.             

Atonement - Ian McEwan

"A person is, among all else, a material thing, easily torn and not easily mended."

As far as I am concerned Atonement is up there with Birdsong. It is absolutely one of the best things I have

ever read.

I have a rule that I don’t read books if I have already seen the movie adaptation. I don’t much see the point in that. I like to be surprised by my books.

This did surprise me. Greatly. Firstly because the movie adaptation is pretty close to the original book. Secondly because this didn’t take away from my enjoyment of it at all.

Cecilia and Robbie have known each other since they were children. They have lived on the same grounds and played together their whole lives. Cecilia, who was born into a family of privilege, lives in the mansion house at the top of the grounds. Robbie, whose mother is the maid, lives in a cottage at the bottom.

Their differences were never an issue until they went to university, where they suddenly took to ignoring each other. This story begins when they return to their homes after three years in Cambridge. Things are different between them and neither one of them knows why.

Robbie realises it before Cecilia does. He writes her a letter and gives it to her younger sister Briony to deliver. But Briony is nosy. She reads the letter and allows her imagination, which is already full of misconceptions and misunderstandings about her sister and the maid’s son, run away with her. The consequences permanently alter all of their lives.

I don’t want to tell you too much else about what happens. You should read this book. I couldn’t put it down. The characters are vivid and lovable, the story is enthralling and full of twists. In the beginning you will certainly think that this is just a love story, but be warned that it definitely is not. It seems that way for a lot of the book, but by the end that you will see that there are lessons to be learned from it. The last chapter will smash everything you thought to pieces. Especially if you haven’t seen the film.

As it goes the film is a pretty good adaptation of this book. It seems to be scene for scene correct, as far as I can remember, with the exception of the last scene and the last chapter. In the film Briony reveals her story smashing secret to a camera, but in the book she seems to keep it to herself. I don’t know which is better. The latter leaves you yearning for justice, which I suppose is a good thing. When a book leaves you pining for something then it has clearly imprinted on you, and I suppose that is what an author should strive for. I do wish that some of the questions had been answered, though I can’t tell you which ones without ruining it for you. I shall just say ‘Does Briony tell her parents the truth in the one day?’.

I recommend this. Especially if you like books about the wartime period, which I have realised recently I do seem to enjoy.  

Little Bee - Chris Cleave

"If your face is swollen from the severe beatings of life, smile and pretend to be a fat man."

'Never judge a book by its cover' certainly applies here, but not for the usual reasons. 

I think I would have enjoyed this book more had it not been for the ridiculous number of compliments plastered across its cover and its inside few pages. It was these exact comments that caused me to read it in the first place, but I felt as though the book didn't quite live up to the hype. 

Little Bee is a Nigerian refugee. A chance encounter with a white couple on the beach leads to something terrible. Two years later Little Bee finds herself in the UK and, with not a friend in the world, she seeks out the white couple. Bound together by awful events, they find their adventure together is not yet over. 

The back of the book implies that something absolutely shockingly terrible happens between the book's main protagonists on the beach that day. What happens is indeed horrendous, but my mind conjured up much worse beforehand. I felt as though the reviews on the front and the Editors letter set the book up to fail. There was no way this book could live up to its own hype. I think I would have been much more impressed by it if I had been left to discover its genius on my own, instead of being promised something unrealistic. 

That being said, I read the book in one day on holiday. It is certainly a page turner. Cleaves has a talent for luring his reader into a false sense of security and then stabbing them in the eye with something unbelievable all of a sudden. It leaves you feeling quite offended. Unfortunately, he doesn't inject this talent into his ending. I felt let down on the last page. I wanted a definitive ending. This book didn't give me that.

I gave it three stars because it made me feel ashamed. If it weren't for that I would have given it less I think. Little Bee is so incredibly naive and lovely that she totally forgives the people of our country even though our needs are the very reason her life is falling apart. She is unbelieving of the luxuries of England, concerned always with being attacked, and is well aware that she is unwanted on our shores. I know that I will think before I complain about anything in my life in the near future because of Chris Cleaves' 'Little Bee'. There is something very special about writing that can invoke this type of reaction. A reaction that might hopefully be beneficial to someone else one day.

Recommended, but don't hold it hostage to the reviews on the front.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - John Boyne

"Of course all this happened a long time ago and nothing like that could ever happen again. Not in this day and age."

I understand that some people don't like this book because they believe Bruno can't possibly be this naive or that it trivialises the holocaust, but I think that this is exactly what makes 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' special and incredibly clever. 

Bruno comes home one day to find his maid packing up his belongings. His father has been promoted by Hitler and his whole family must move somewhere new. He later discovers that this new place is called Poland. Just a few feet from his nee front door hundreds of people mill around in what he mistakes for striped pyjamas. They are separated from him by a barbed wire fence and they all look sad. Bruno is confused. One day, further up the field, he meets a boy his own age. Even their meeting never clarifies things in his mind. Bruno is innocent. He has been privileged, and he thinks the world is a fine place for all. 

This book is written from the little boy's perspective. Bruno is nine years old and has been lied to and sheltered for his entire life, so much so that he has the mindset of a child much younger. The world is perfect and everyone is as lucky as he is. Even when it is right in front of his face, he cannot see that people might be suffering. In the same respect his friend Shmuel, who he meets every afternoon, can't seem to believe that nobody would be so oblivious to what is happening to the Jews, so he never mentions it to his new friend. 

One of the most wondrous things about this book is that it captures the innocence of children. As a charity worker I often find myself longing for a time before I knew that terrible things happen to people just a few thousand miles from where I live. We were all that young once. Bruno's nativity is exaggerated, but for the purposes of this novel it needs to be. He has to be old enough to explore on his own, but young enough to be totally oblivious to the horrible things happening right in front of his face. 

I knew something horrific was going to happen at the end, but it still broke my heart in two. Still, nothing startled me so much as Boyne's flippant and sarcastic comment at the end. It really made me think. We are coming to a time now in which there will be no holocaust survivors still alive. The whole event will, at some point, become just something that once happened in history. To someone else and once upon a time. 

I don't think Boyne was trivialising the holocaust at all. I think he was making a social statement about the mindset of people today. To many of us the holocaust is something that happened once a long time ago, to nobody we ever knew. We are all as naive as Bruno if we believe these types of things are not happening across the world right now, or if we believe that it could never happen again. 

I really recommend this book. It is an easy but a powerful read. Drink in the message and remember it. The last five pages move quickly and make the slow start and slightly annoying repetitiveness well worth it. Maybe don't read it on a sun lounger like I did, though. Unless you are prepared to pretend you have sun lotion in your eyes for a couple of hours afterwards.

Life of Pi - Yann Martel

One boy. One boat. One tiger.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel has taken over Birdsong as the best book I have ever read.

The whole way through reading it I was in the blissful position of not being able to put it down. It was everything I love in a good book. Colourful. Different. Unpredictable.

I didn’t know anything about it beyond the fact it had a tiger in it. I read it because I saw the trailer for the film and thought ‘What the hell is that about?’. If you don’t know already, it is about a boy who becomes stranded at sea with a zebra, a hyena, a tiger and a rat.

During his 227-day voyage both the thinkable and the unthinkable happen to him. His physical and mental strength are tested beyond comprehension as he tries to survive, and Pi, who narrates the novel, uses his unbelievable story as the basis for his belief in God.

“Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer. What is your problem with hard to believe?”

I don’t want to spoil the ending for anyone, but the reader is left with a decision to make. Do you prefer and believe an extraordinary tail of endurance and friendship? Or do you believe a more comprehensible, tragic version of events.

There is no twist (which the movie version would like you to believe there is). There are simply two versions of events and you get to choose which one you prefer. It sounds complicated. It isn’t, I promise. And I can pretty much guarantee that, even though you may not want to, you will prefer the story that includes a tiger.

Life of Pi was a little bit of an emotional journey for me. I connected with its main character and his views on religion, I am already in love with India and the culture it has to offer, and I am a vegetarian (so I love animals). However, even if none of these things were true, I would love Life of Pi for the story it tells. It is original and breathtaking. A must read for story lovers everywhere.