The heroine of the story is a, yes, charming young woman named Beatrice Nash, who arrives in Rye to serve as Latin teacher to the village's children. The rural realm of Sussex is still a place of peace and quirky goings-on. Whitehall is "crammed with busy civil servant politicians, and generals," but Germany has not yet stormed Belgium. When the narrative begins, Archduke Ferdinand has been assassinated in Sarajevo, the incident which will trigger the hostilities. is to enter World War I, when few Brits had an inkling of the changes that would befall them. The novel depicts the fraught period just before the U.K. The setting is Rye, "a little high-perched Sussex town," as the author Henry James has it in the book's epigraph. Now Simonson is back with The Summer Before the War, a gentle comedy of provincial manners that rivals her first in the charm department. With its delicate, witty portrayal of the English countryside, that international bestseller left its readers clamoring for more. When it works, it can be ragingly successful, as with Helen Simonson's debut novel Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. Character, dialogue and setting all must be carefully calibrated, but above all everything has to look easy. How?Ĭharm is an elusive elixir in literature. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title The Summer Before the War Author Helen Simonson
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