Island Song

Description

1940. Guernsey is first bombed, then occupied, by the Germans. A year earlier, young, naive and recently married Helene, waves goodbye to her husband, who has enlisted in the British army. Protected only by her father and Nanna, Helene must carve out a life on the island for the length of the war. Forty years later, her daughter Roz begins a search for the truth about her father, and stumbles into the secret history of her mother's life. Written with emotional acuity and passionate intensity, Island Song speaks of the moral complexities living with the enemy and the messy reality of human relationships in a tightly knit community. As Roz discovers, truth is hard to pin down, and so are the rights and wrongs of those struggling to survive in the most difficult of circumstances.

Madeleine Bunting was for many years a columnist for the Guardian, which she joined in 1990. Born in North Yorkshire, Bunting read History at Cambridge and Politics at Harvard. She is the author of The Model Occupation: The Channel Islands under German Rule, 1940-45; Willing Slaves: How the Overwork Culture is Ruling Our Lives (both published by HarperCollins), The Plot: A Biography of an English Acre (published by Granta in 2009) which won the Portico Prize and was shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize, and Love of Country which was shortlisted for the Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize 2017. Island Song is her first novel. She lives in London with her family.

A striking first novel that explores the moral complexities of occupation during the second world war -- Anthony Quinn * Observer * It's rare to find a first novel that is so assured and so well-balanced ... it is the best sort of intelligent popular fiction... Page-turning -- Allan Massie * Scotsman * Elegant...unflinching * Daily Mail * A wonderful evocation of wartime secrets and hidden histories, and a moving exploration of the far-reaching consequences they can have -- Catherine Hall Compelling and moving - the narrative carried me along. I was gripped by Madeleine Bunting's cast of wartime characters and their modern-day descendants until the very last page -- Catherine Hall Psychologically taut and compelling. A fascinating depiction of wartime Guernsey, with very real, very moving characters -- Catherine Hall A gripping and exceptionally well told story about one woman's quest for truth, illuminating the many ways in which emotional and political histories are so often intricately -- Melissa Benn Vivid and engrossing, Island Song tells an extraordinary story, bringing to life a largely untold experience of the Second World War. Madeleine Bunting is a fine writer, and her beautiful novel a memorable debut. -- Claire Messud A page-turner...many pages are so good, even charming, that you want to linger on them...it's rare to find a first novel that is so assured and well-balanced * Yorkshire Post * Highly enjoyable * Hackney Citizen * Richly researched...Island Song may be read as a diptych, exploring the excruciating dilemmas facing an occupied people * Guardian * Evocative * Cambridge Edition *