Cardigan Bay

A beautiful and touching story. Had a very nostalgic feel to this one and I loved the slow pace of the story and the old fashioned approach to a relationship, a time when letters were exchanged back and forth.

This is a story of war and intrigue , of loss , and love and it is so well written . I was lured in right from the beginning as I was drawn to the two characters who are at the center of the novel. Mary Kennedy moves from Boston back to Ireland, her place of birth. She is incredibly sad after enduring personal losses and seeks solace in the quiet independence she hopes to find there. Charles Davenport, a British Major , an Elisabethan poetry scholar and professor (and my new literary crush) returns home to England after being wounded in the Seige of Tobruk in 1941 only to find his life has changed .

The narrative alternates between Charles and Mary . Sometimes the narratives are not separated by chapters but separated by paragraphs only . The shift is not difficult and I liked knowing what was happening with each of them at a given time . Their paths cross and they embark on a correspondence that lifts them both as they share their stories and thoughts , their losses . The letters are wonderful as we see their relationship evolve . I loved that Charles added a few lines from a poem at the end of each letter .

" If I sent thee late a rosy wreath ,
Not so much honoring thee As giving it a hole that there It could not withered be .
But thou thereon didst only breathe,
And sent'st it back to me ;
Since when it grows and smells, I swear,
Not of itself , but thee !" ( Ben Johnson)

Unlike a lot of other war novels that I have read , we only see the battlefield at the beginning and the end . The work that Charles is involved in for most of the novel is focused on developing strategy. This is much more than a love story , but it seems to be an accurate historical portrayal of some of the events of WWII. There's not much more I can say except that I loved the story and definitely recommend it .

Thanks to Trafalgar Square Publishing (Robert Hale) and NetGalley).