A review by kategci
La biblioteca sull'oceano by Ashley Hay

3.0

I have been gifted a subscription to RJ Julia Bookseller's Signed First Edition club for the past 2 years. I have not gotten around to reading all the books yet, and I picked up this novel from April 2016 after finishing the sad The Grapes of Wrath. Well-written and award winning, this was not the palate cleanser I was expecting. I do not usually read the end flaps, but the book was blurbed by 3 great writers on the back of the jacket, so I took it on vacation. I am not a big fan of grief literature and how to remake your life in the wake of a tragedy, but Ashley Hay kept me interested. Set on coastal Australia in the aftermath of Word War II, Annika, the railwayman's wife of the title learns to slowly cope and adjust to change after her personal world is shattered, while being part of a small town coping with the return of lost and bereft soldiers and a doctor from World War I. Another worthy addition to World War II literature from a country and continent not nearly familiar enough to me.