Beyond Summerland

LoveReading Says

The pain and suffering of World War Two have not diminished on Jersey in the summer of 1945, as two women find their lives entwined as they navigate post-war life in Beyond Summerland by Jenny Lecoat.

Jean Parris learns that her father has died in prison after being arrested during the war for listening to the BBC on his contraband radio. She suspects Hazel le Tourneur is the informant, as she was seen arguing with him soon before his arrest. After five long years of Nazi occupation, the atmosphere on Jersey is suffused with suspicions and accusations.

Jean and Hazel form an uneasy alliance after Hazel sees Jean’s assignation with her German boyfriend and does not want that information shared with her family and neighbours. Both the women are lonely and sad, and are only trying to live a fulfilling life in challenging circumstances. 

It is clear that Lecoat undertook a great deal of research for this novel, with the book brimming with historical detail of post-war hardships, including food shortages and frayed relationships. The characters are richly drawn and the tricky moral dilemmas of the war are clearly laid out. 

Beyond Summerland is the second novel from Lecoat, a Jersey native who set both her first novel, The Girl from the Channel Islands and her feature film, Another Mother’s Son on the island and wrote about the occupation and its aftermath. She writes in the author’s note that the characters and events in this book are fictional, but the setting and background are real. 

Maureen Stapleton

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