An unlikely World War II romance is the subject of this ambitious
first novel from the Welsh-Malaysian author of the story
collections The Ugliest House in the World (1997) and Unequal Love
(2000).Following a prologue, in which British army officer Rotheram
(son of a German Jewish war-hero-turned-pacifist) is assigned to
interrogate captured Nazi officer Rudolf Hess, the scene shifts to
a farming village in mountainous northern Wales. Davies gradually
connects the shadow of the war to the experiences of teenaged
barmaid Esther Evans, whose sheepherder father loudly proclaims his
countrymen's ingrained distrust of all things English (including
the war effort). Another narrative pattern emerges in the ordeal of
Karsten Simmering, imprisoned in the POW camp the English army has
built not far from the Evans farm, and guilt-ridden over his
decision to persuade the soldiers under his command to surrender.
Karsten's agonies of conscience are juxtaposed with the progress of
Esther's maturing (she's raped by her boyfriend, a soldier in the
British army, and shares the sufferings of the family who have lost
their son Rhys-the decent man Esther might have married). The plots
coalesce as Karsten escapes, hides in the Evans's barn and draws
closer to Esther-with consequences that will compromise his
"freedom" and alter her future. The story comes full circle as the
completion of Rotheram's mission ironically confirms the likelihood
that he, like so many others maimed and transformed by the war,
belongs nowhere, and has no identity. The book is overlong and
explains too much, but succeeds admirably in its presentation of
engaging major characters, each of whom is given a complex and
intriguing personal and family history. The result is a rich,
moving explication of the ambiguities of duty and sacrifice,
courage and perseverance.Not quite The English Patient, but a
credible dramatization of a quality too seldom encountered in
contemporary fiction: nobility. (Kirkus Reviews)
Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize A Richard & Judy Book Club
choice 'A beautiful, ambitious novel . . . Emotionally resonant and
perfectly rendered, I believed in every character, every sheep,
every last blade of grass.' - Ann Patchett 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 landscape,
THE WELSH GIRL reminds us anew of the pervasive presence of the
past, and the startling intimacy of the foreign.
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