Last Letter Home by Rachel Hore

• Hardcover: 560 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK (22 Mar. 2018)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 147115694X
• ISBN-13: 978-1471156946

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Synopsis

On holiday with friends, young historian Briony Wood becomes fascinated with a wartime story of a ruined villa in the hills behind Naples. There is a family connection: her grandfather had been a British soldier during the Italian campaign of 1943 in that very area. Handed a bundle of letters that were found after the war, Briony sets off to trace the fate of their sender, Sarah Bailey.

In 1939, Sarah returns with her mother and sister from India, in mourning, to take up residence in the Norfolk village of Westbury. There she forms a firm friendship with Paul Hartmann, a young German who has found sanctuary in the local manor house, Westbury Hall. With the outbreak of war, conflicts of loyalty in Westbury deepen.

When, 70 years later, Briony begins to uncover Sarah and Paul’s story, she encounters resentments and secrets still tightly guarded. What happened long ago in the villa in the shadow of Vesuvius, she suspects, still has the power to give terrible pain …

 

Review

Rachel Hore was one of the  authors in a previous blog I wrote on my Top Ten Women’s Fiction Authors, and reading Last Letter Home reinforced why she is on that list. The plot is set in the present and in the lead up to and and during WWII.  In the present the narrative follows Briony Wood, an historian, who discovers that her grandfather was in Italy during the war, and as she tries to find out more about him and the men he served with she comes across a different story; that of the relationship between Paul Hartmann and Sarah Bailey.   Paul moved to England with his mother after the death of his father at the hands of the Nazi Regime, but being half German isn’t easy in a country preparing for war with his homeland.  Sarah and Paul bond over their passion for botany and gardening, and continue to support each other by writing to each other during the war and Paul’s travels from the south coast, to Egypt and Italy.  The different threads of the narrative, both in the present and during the years of conflict home and abroad, are skilfully woven together to produce this epic tale of wartime love, secrets, lies and its continuing effect of those in the present.

Rachel Hore’s characters are vivid, well developed, and have a sense of realism.  Paul’s character brings the reality of a person of German heritage in the 1940’s to light.  There was obvious discrimination, and even though he was well educated and half British  he was only given a job as an under gardener.  His character shows great courage and determination in the face of adversity.  Sarah understands Paul, and is strong enough in character to follow her heart both in life and love, even if her mother and sister may not share her ideals.  In contrast, Briony in the present day doesn’t have as much confidence as Sarah.  She has suffered from anxiety and shies away from confrontation, but in her research and the journey it takes her on brings about changes, and she begins to be more self assured.

Last Letter Home is a large novel at five hundred and sixty pages long, and it is testament to Rachel Hore’s skill as a writer that she keeps the readers attention and doesn’t go off in tangents but sticks to the principle of the plot.  There is obviously a lot of research gone into this book, details of the war and the cultural and social history of those who lived through it, and those after who were left to pick up the pieces, and how the effects of the war are still felt in the present day.

 

Last Letter Home is a tour de force of a novel, full of historical detail with a gripping story line that completely consumed me. A beautiful novel, that brings to life the characters, the settings and the legacy of war with authenticity and empathy;  simply stunning.