Reviewed on Richard & Judy on Wednesday 12 March 2008.
This is a story about love, loyalties and displacement. The three main characters all so different and yet linked by the sense of dislocation. Esther yearns to leave her sleepy village for a life with more excitement, Rotherham, is a German Jewish refugee who no longer knows where in the world he fits in and Karston is struggling with his feelings of honour after surrendering himself and his men to the English. Ho Davies captures the helplessness of each character as the war wields its devastating effects on them but also shows strong characters who will not allow their circumstances to destroy them.
| Primary Genre | Historical Fiction |
| Recommendations: |
In 1944, a German Jewish refugee is sent to Wales to interview Rudolf Hess; in Snowdonia, a seventeen-year-old girl, the daughter of a fiercely nationalistic shepherd, dreams of the bright lights of an English city; and in a nearby POW camp, a German soldier struggles to reconcile his surrender with his sense of honour. As their lives intersect, all three will come to question where they belong and where their loyalties lie.
Peter Ho Davies's thought-provoking and profoundly moving first novel traces a perilous wartime romance as it explores the bonds of love and duty that hold us to family, country, and ultimately our fellow man. Vividly rooted in history and the landscape, The Welsh Girl, reminds us anew of the pervasive presence of the past, and the startling intimacy of the foreign.
The Welsh Girl features in the following genres: Historical Fiction, Debut Books of the Month, Book Club Recommendations, eBooks of the Month, Fiction, Recommendations
The Welsh Girl is available in Paperback
The Welsh Girl was written by Peter Ho Davies and published by Hodder & Stoughton General Division
The Welsh Girl has 343 pages
£9.89
