3.65 AVERAGE


I don't know much about England between the wars, I imagine not much fun. This is the time period for A Single Thread. A single (thanks to the war) woman, "Surplus" how's that for a shitty descriptive? Just makes you feel all good about life!
Violet is expected to stay at home with her crotchety & bitter mother, but wants to leave, have a life of her own before she turns into another version of her mum. Her younger brother emotionally supports her but financially and socially things are tough. Folks are not too forgiving about any sort of "deviance" and Violet needs to determine what's really important. (a little cliche-ish but nice)
Interesting facts (true!) about Winchester Cathedral, the embroiderers and bell-ringers - this is what caught my interest about this book.
emotional inspiring lighthearted relaxing sad medium-paced

Cathedrals. Bell-ringing. Embroidery. Kneelers. Mourning. Relationships. A bit slow, but well-written.
emotional hopeful relaxing medium-paced
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
challenging informative mysterious reflective sad slow-paced
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

all nighter

Perhaps I gave it an extra star for: "I would like to be a bellringer - just to go up in the tower and for an hour concentrate on nothing but the sound of the bells and my place in them."

Most readers will know Tracy Chevalier from her best-selling novel [b:The Girl with a Pearl Earring|2865|Girl with a Pearl Earring|Tracy Chevalier|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327197580l/2865._SY75_.jpg|3358875], which was adapted into a film with actors Scarlet Johansson and Colin Firth. A writer who writes detailed and immersive historical fiction, she's always been adept at capturing the zeitgeist of the eras she explores. A Single Thread examines the role of the so-called British "surplus" women in the years following World War I. With so many men killed during the war, the population ratio of men to women in the U.K. was skewed with two million more women of marriageable age than men. The lives of these "surplus" women were often frustrating and constrained by the social norms of the era. Some, like the protagonist of the story, Violet Speedwell, worked and most longed for companionship. Violet, age 38 when we meet her, lost her beloved older brother, and her fiancé, during the war. Not long afterward, her father, the glue that has held their family together during these hard times, dies as well. Her mother is angry, hurt and bitter. Her one surviving brother is married and involved with his own family. Though Violet enjoys time with his wife and children, she pursues a job away from the family's home base of Southampton, in Winchester, in pursuit of peace, privacy, and her own life. Leaving her mother's home she takes serious financial risks and initially lives a meager and lonely existence. That is until she crashes a private service in the cathedral for broderers, who are embroidering cushions for the cathedral as part of a women's volunteering project. (Please note that this needlework is what we now commonly call needlepoint.) Meeting the group and their leader, the real-life figure Mrs. Louisa Pesel, changes the course of Violet's life, and she, in turn, changes the lives of others. Another feature of the book is a focus on the art of bellringing in cathedrals.

This is a novel with lush details about embroidery. If you've ever done any sort of needlework, you're bound to enjoy it. If not, hopefully, you'll appreciate the work described. Likewise with the bellringing, which was fascinating. A quiet book, A Single Thread captures the feeling of despair that was present in the years in between the Great War and WWII, and also examines the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party, as seen from across the Channel in England.

Readers who wish to see some visuals of the embroidery/needlepoint patterns that are described in the book should check out Tracy Chevalier's website, here.

I received a Digital Review Copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I would like to thank netgalley and Harper Collins for a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

An interesting look into the inter war period in Britain, especially from a women's pov. I loved the history of the broderers.

I enjoyed my time with this quiet, cosy, but affecting, story of post-WW1 English rural life. It tackled big subjects - grief, tragic loss, trauma, religion, spirituality, symbolism, belief, love, survival and survivor's guilt as well as delving into how the war had affected women's roles in the workplace/home, navigating relationships, 'spinster' or excess women resulting from wartime losses and the fragile male psyche following trauma. That sounds like a lot - and it is - but the novel feels like a safe pair of hands or a warm mug of tea.

The book - centred as it is, on the work of the church and the comfort religion can bring - manages to replicate the feeling that church can give (or the one that it gives me, at any rate, even as a non-regular churchgoer). It feels comfortable, it feels safe, it feels warm. The story meanders along at a slow pace, but I found very quickly that I didn't really mind where it was going, because the narrative was so comforting. Yes, I saw some of the strands coming together as they were being woven, but I didn't care in the slightest. I also appreciated a prominent f/f relationship, which is something I hadn't expected and don't often see with the main popular names in historical fiction. I'm a relatively recent convert to Tracy Chevalier's work and will continue to read many more of her novels.