Yours Juliet (book)
Your Juliet is a two-part letter novel by Mary Ann Shaffer from 2008, which was first published in 2009 by Rowohlt in German and was translated by Margarete Längfeld and Martina Tichy. The original title is: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society .
History of origin
Shaffer came up with the idea for this book when, after unsuccessful research into another biography, she was stuck on vacation at Guernseys Airport and read several works on the German occupation of the Channel Islands in World War II in the bookstore there . Her publisher, however, demanded extensive changes to the book, which was completed in 2006, which she could no longer make herself due to her deteriorating health, so she passed this task on to her niece, the children's book author Annie Barrows.
In 2018, the material was filmed by Mike Newell .
construction
The focus of the two-part book is the English author Juliet Ashton. The novel consists mainly of letters and telegrams from and to her. In the first part, Juliet in England comes across a Guernsey book club while searching for a new topic. She exchanges letters with several members and makes friends with them. In the second part, Juliet traveled to Guernsey to meet her new friends in person.
content
Part One: England, 1946. Juliet Ashton, who wrote a popular column during the war that has just been published successfully in book form, is looking for a subject for a new book. Meanwhile, she is to write a series of articles for the Times on the value of reading. When she found out about the Club of the Guernsey Friends of Seal and Potato Peel Casserole, she contacted the members to find out how the club and its strange name came about. She learns that the club was born out of a white lie. During the German occupation, some members had violated the curfew and had been stopped by a German patrol. They said they came from their literary club meeting (in fact, a pig was illegally slaughtered and eaten). In order to keep the legend alive, people actually met regularly from now on to talk about books and literature. For most of the members, who had hardly read anything before the club was founded, except for the Bible, seed catalogs and the trade journal for pig farmers, a completely new experience.
Juliet learns more and more about the members of the club and makes friends with them. Above all, she is beginning to be interested in the increasingly deprived occupation on the Channel Islands, about which, like most Britons, she actually knows nothing. A central figure in the reports of the club members is the young, unconventional Elizabeth. The warm-hearted English woman had an affair with a German army doctor who later fell. Their three-year-old daughter Kit is currently growing up with the club members after Elizabeth was arrested and taken away by the Germans. She had hidden a Polish slave laborer and was betrayed.
With the help of her friend and publisher Sidney, Juliet considers writing a book about the occupation of Guernsey and traveling to the island.
Second part, Guernsey: Juliet is warmly welcomed and feels very comfortable in the new environment. Above all, the quiet pig farmer Dawsey Adams, who also hires out for all sorts of craftsman services and with whom she shares a preference for Charles Lamb , wins her over. She also becomes friends with Isola, Amelia and Eben, who are also part of the club community.
From the former French concentration camp inmate Remy they finally learn that Elizabeth was shot in the Ravensbrück concentration camp . Juliet cares more and more about Kit and learns more and more from her mother Elizabeth. She then decides to put Elizabeth at the center of her book.
The friends also take care of Remy, who they bring to Guernsey. Juliet's publisher Sidney also comes to the island and makes friends with Isola, with whom he lives. He receives letters from her that Oscar Wilde had written to her grandmother.
Juliet, who has since turned away her stubborn American admirer, wants to stay on Guernsey and adopt Kit. After realizing that Dawsey is just as in love with her as she is with him, she proposes marriage, which he accepts.
criticism
Felicitas von Lovenberg wrote in the FAZ on April 3, 2009: “Your Juliet” is not a literary masterpiece, but a gem, a wonderful, actually enchanting book (...). The charm of the book lies mainly in the humorous, eccentric character images. (...) And the suffering and privation of the war and post-war period are changing perspectives in a financial crisis that has not yet taken the butter off anyone's bread.
In its May 16, 2012 issue of the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger : The book describes (...) lots of adorable little things that make Guernsey so special, and also illuminates a chapter in the exciting history of the Channel Island (...).
source
- Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows: Your Juliet. Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek near Hamburg, special edition July 2011, ISBN 978-3-499-25652-3