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A review by jhscolloquium
Beyond Summerland by Jenny Lecoat
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Author Jenny Lecoat was born in Jersey, Channel Islands, fifteen years after the end of World War II. The islands, situated fourteen miles from the coast of France, are part of the British Isles and the only British territory occupied by the Nazis. Both sides of Lecoat’s family were heavily involved in resistance activity during the war, and one of her grandfathers built crystal audio sets capable of accessing the BBC, which was, of course, illegal. Her great aunt, Louisa Gould, was reported for harboring an escaped Russian slave worker, and perished in the gas chamber at Ravensbrüch. Harold Gould, her great uncle, became the only British survivor of Bergen Belsen. The two elderly sisters her family blamed for the betrayal were never prosecuted due to a lack of evidence, and Lecoat does not know whether they were truly guilty, although she notes that they were “ostracized for the rest of their lives.” The story was the basis of a feature film released in the United Kingdom, Another Mother’s Son, in 2017 and in 2020, her first novel, The Girl from the Channel Islands, was published and became a New York Times bestseller.
Her family’s wartime experiences provided inspiration for Beyond Summerland, which she spent three years researching and writing. She says her story began coming to life in 2020 during the pandemic and was born into “a world increasingly divided by opposing certainties, with so many reluctant to challenge deeply held convictions.”
As the book opens, it is June 1945, just one month after Liberation Day. Violet Parris, forty-six years old but having aged greatly during the preceding five-year Nazi Occupation, and her nineteen-year-old daughter, Jean, are hoping for information about Jean’s father, Philip, who was arrested fifteen months earlier. It has been a year since they received a letter from him. He was only sentenced to serve fifteen months, so they are hoping he has been released and is on his way home. He was convicted of illegally possessing a wireless radio at his shop, P. Parris, Ironmongers, where he permitted neighbors to listen to broadcasts with him. But the Constable can provide no update about his status.
Violet hopes that Philip’s younger brother, Eddie, will be able to assist when he returns to Jersey. Jean dreads his arrival. Her father disapproved of his brother’s decision to escape a week before the Occupation began. Eddie has been working in England ever since. When he discovers the wreckage of the home he built fifteen years ago, he moves in with Violet and Jean. Worse, a man names Charles Clement appears at their door to inform them that he was imprisoned with Philip, who succumbed to dysentery on a cold winter day. They know he is telling the truth when he produces a treasured family photo that Philip carried with him, explaining that he promised Philip he would deliver the news in person if he was lucky enough to survive.
In the aftermath, Jean and her family learn for the first time that Philip’s radio wasn’t discovered during a random search of his shop, as they had been led to believe. They are horrified to belatedly find out that someone reported him. And a witness observed him arguing with a tall woman in her late twenties with reddish hair several times in the weeks leading up to his arrest. But who would report a pillar of the community, a kind man beloved by his friends and neighbors? And who was the woman he argued with? What could he possibly have quarreled about with her? Jean vows that she will not only get answers to all the questions surrounding her father’s demise but also seek justice for him.
Hazel Le Tourneur lives with her arthritic father in an apartment above Philip’s shop which has remained shuttered and fallen into disrepair since the day German soldiers ransacked it and emerged with the radio, returning shortly thereafter to confiscate the rest of its useful contents. News of Philip’s death greatly upsets her, even though she had criticized him harshly as BBC broadcasts emanated loudly from his contraband radio through open windows, putting everyone in the area in jeopardy. She had never liked Philip, “but a death like that, in the squalor of a foreign jail, alone and terrified . . .” was unconscionable. Her heart goes out to Violet and Jean, and Hazel knows that she must “be part of something, useful.” She decides to join the Democratic Movement and work to ensure Jersey’s future.
Thirty-one people attend Philip’s memorial service and Hazel is among them. When Jean spots her, she asks her mother if she recognizes Hazel, who matches the description of the woman seen arguing with Philip. Violet identifies her as one of the residents of the apartments about the shop. And someone who hated Philip.
In Beyond Summerland, Lecoat credibly crafts a portrait of a town in turmoil and on the cusp of what will come next. Even though World War II has ended and the Nazis have been defeated, life does not, of course, immediately revert to the way it was before the Occupation. The islanders are still suffering. Nazis overtook and wreaked havoc in Jersey, and as some of the residents return, they find all the ways that the town has changed dramatically. In Eddie’s case, the house he lovingly built was ransacked and destroyed as people foraged for food, supplies, and shelter after being displaced from their own homes and jobs. He is bitter and angry, and with his brother’s death confirmed, he takes up residence in Philip’s home, usurping the role of head of the household with Violet’s assent. Jean has always found him overbearing and boorish, and she resents both the sense of entitlement he displays, as well as the transformation she sees in Violet who, at first, was inconsolable as she mourned Philip. Worse, they are intent on pushing Violet into a relationship with Tom Maloret, who works as a clerk in the States office. He is pleasant enough and a gentleman, but Jean cannot reveal why she is not attracted to him. Even though she is wracked with guilt, she proceeds to “use him mercilessly for her own ends” to conceal her romance with a German soldier. Naively optimistic, she does understand that her secret, if revealed, would have draconian consequences.
Lecoat’s characters are richly drawn, complicated, and deeply and fascinatingly flawed. Both Jean and Hazel are sympathetic, and Lecoat’s compassionate depiction of their struggles resonates. At the heart of the story is a deftly constructed, compelling, and very clever mystery concerning Philip around which swirls a tale of two determined young women who must come to grips with the past in order to fashion their futures. It is a tumultuous journey for both of them.
Jean takes a job as housekeeper for her mother’s sister and her husband, even though she resents the way she is treated and the little concern they displayed for her and Violet during the war. Hazel is hired as a teacher, but her political association threatens her ability to earn even a meager living. Jean’s relentless pursuit of the facts surrounding her father’s arrest and imprisonment have reverberations for Hazel, who discovers Jean’s secret. Each of them is required to assess the knowledge they have gained and make choices about what they will do with the information. Revelations about her parents’ marriage, as well as Violet’s relationships with her sister and Eddie, add to Jean’s consternation. Initially intent on not just learning the truth, but also exacting revenge on the person who reported her father, Jean is forced to reconsider her course of action. Hazel feels the lasting impact of the Occupation and islanders’ continuing obsession with finding and reporting collaborators. “I’m outspoken. People don’t like that, especially in women,” she laments. And even after she leaves the Democratic Movement, she is “viewed with suspicion. . . . Once people have marked you as the enemy, it’s hard to change their minds.” As in the case of the women accused of reporting Lecoat’s relatives, Hazel knows that a conviction is not necessary to destroy a life. “They’ll just ostracize us. Work, shopping, social events. . . . You don’t need to send people away – you can just banish them perfectly well in their own homes,” Hazel notes. Both women want to be free to live their lives as they see fit but recognize they will have to fight to achieve their goal. For Jean, in particular, that means accepting truths that are at odds with everything she thought she knew about her family and moving forward with a radically altered worldview after the “lines between truth, lies, wishful thinking, and pure fantasy” become hopelessly blurred.
Beyond Summerland is a riveting examination of the repercussions of war, as well as a study of the lengths to which people will go to survive it, the power of secrets, the price of revenge, and the bravery required to forgive. It is also an exploration of how real and lasting friendships can surprisingly be forged from convoluted and tragic shared experiences. Lecoat says she hopes readers will experience “interesting female characters struggling with huge dilemmas, a page-turning story, and echoes of our contemporary world amid the 1945 setting — human nature never really changes.” She has achieved and exceeded that goal. Beyond Summerland is a unique and must-read volume for fans of World War II-era historical fiction.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
Her family’s wartime experiences provided inspiration for Beyond Summerland, which she spent three years researching and writing. She says her story began coming to life in 2020 during the pandemic and was born into “a world increasingly divided by opposing certainties, with so many reluctant to challenge deeply held convictions.”
As the book opens, it is June 1945, just one month after Liberation Day. Violet Parris, forty-six years old but having aged greatly during the preceding five-year Nazi Occupation, and her nineteen-year-old daughter, Jean, are hoping for information about Jean’s father, Philip, who was arrested fifteen months earlier. It has been a year since they received a letter from him. He was only sentenced to serve fifteen months, so they are hoping he has been released and is on his way home. He was convicted of illegally possessing a wireless radio at his shop, P. Parris, Ironmongers, where he permitted neighbors to listen to broadcasts with him. But the Constable can provide no update about his status.
Violet hopes that Philip’s younger brother, Eddie, will be able to assist when he returns to Jersey. Jean dreads his arrival. Her father disapproved of his brother’s decision to escape a week before the Occupation began. Eddie has been working in England ever since. When he discovers the wreckage of the home he built fifteen years ago, he moves in with Violet and Jean. Worse, a man names Charles Clement appears at their door to inform them that he was imprisoned with Philip, who succumbed to dysentery on a cold winter day. They know he is telling the truth when he produces a treasured family photo that Philip carried with him, explaining that he promised Philip he would deliver the news in person if he was lucky enough to survive.
In the aftermath, Jean and her family learn for the first time that Philip’s radio wasn’t discovered during a random search of his shop, as they had been led to believe. They are horrified to belatedly find out that someone reported him. And a witness observed him arguing with a tall woman in her late twenties with reddish hair several times in the weeks leading up to his arrest. But who would report a pillar of the community, a kind man beloved by his friends and neighbors? And who was the woman he argued with? What could he possibly have quarreled about with her? Jean vows that she will not only get answers to all the questions surrounding her father’s demise but also seek justice for him.
Hazel Le Tourneur lives with her arthritic father in an apartment above Philip’s shop which has remained shuttered and fallen into disrepair since the day German soldiers ransacked it and emerged with the radio, returning shortly thereafter to confiscate the rest of its useful contents. News of Philip’s death greatly upsets her, even though she had criticized him harshly as BBC broadcasts emanated loudly from his contraband radio through open windows, putting everyone in the area in jeopardy. She had never liked Philip, “but a death like that, in the squalor of a foreign jail, alone and terrified . . .” was unconscionable. Her heart goes out to Violet and Jean, and Hazel knows that she must “be part of something, useful.” She decides to join the Democratic Movement and work to ensure Jersey’s future.
Thirty-one people attend Philip’s memorial service and Hazel is among them. When Jean spots her, she asks her mother if she recognizes Hazel, who matches the description of the woman seen arguing with Philip. Violet identifies her as one of the residents of the apartments about the shop. And someone who hated Philip.
In Beyond Summerland, Lecoat credibly crafts a portrait of a town in turmoil and on the cusp of what will come next. Even though World War II has ended and the Nazis have been defeated, life does not, of course, immediately revert to the way it was before the Occupation. The islanders are still suffering. Nazis overtook and wreaked havoc in Jersey, and as some of the residents return, they find all the ways that the town has changed dramatically. In Eddie’s case, the house he lovingly built was ransacked and destroyed as people foraged for food, supplies, and shelter after being displaced from their own homes and jobs. He is bitter and angry, and with his brother’s death confirmed, he takes up residence in Philip’s home, usurping the role of head of the household with Violet’s assent. Jean has always found him overbearing and boorish, and she resents both the sense of entitlement he displays, as well as the transformation she sees in Violet who, at first, was inconsolable as she mourned Philip. Worse, they are intent on pushing Violet into a relationship with Tom Maloret, who works as a clerk in the States office. He is pleasant enough and a gentleman, but Jean cannot reveal why she is not attracted to him. Even though she is wracked with guilt, she proceeds to “use him mercilessly for her own ends” to conceal her romance with a German soldier. Naively optimistic, she does understand that her secret, if revealed, would have draconian consequences.
Lecoat’s characters are richly drawn, complicated, and deeply and fascinatingly flawed. Both Jean and Hazel are sympathetic, and Lecoat’s compassionate depiction of their struggles resonates. At the heart of the story is a deftly constructed, compelling, and very clever mystery concerning Philip around which swirls a tale of two determined young women who must come to grips with the past in order to fashion their futures. It is a tumultuous journey for both of them.
Jean takes a job as housekeeper for her mother’s sister and her husband, even though she resents the way she is treated and the little concern they displayed for her and Violet during the war. Hazel is hired as a teacher, but her political association threatens her ability to earn even a meager living. Jean’s relentless pursuit of the facts surrounding her father’s arrest and imprisonment have reverberations for Hazel, who discovers Jean’s secret. Each of them is required to assess the knowledge they have gained and make choices about what they will do with the information. Revelations about her parents’ marriage, as well as Violet’s relationships with her sister and Eddie, add to Jean’s consternation. Initially intent on not just learning the truth, but also exacting revenge on the person who reported her father, Jean is forced to reconsider her course of action. Hazel feels the lasting impact of the Occupation and islanders’ continuing obsession with finding and reporting collaborators. “I’m outspoken. People don’t like that, especially in women,” she laments. And even after she leaves the Democratic Movement, she is “viewed with suspicion. . . . Once people have marked you as the enemy, it’s hard to change their minds.” As in the case of the women accused of reporting Lecoat’s relatives, Hazel knows that a conviction is not necessary to destroy a life. “They’ll just ostracize us. Work, shopping, social events. . . . You don’t need to send people away – you can just banish them perfectly well in their own homes,” Hazel notes. Both women want to be free to live their lives as they see fit but recognize they will have to fight to achieve their goal. For Jean, in particular, that means accepting truths that are at odds with everything she thought she knew about her family and moving forward with a radically altered worldview after the “lines between truth, lies, wishful thinking, and pure fantasy” become hopelessly blurred.
Beyond Summerland is a riveting examination of the repercussions of war, as well as a study of the lengths to which people will go to survive it, the power of secrets, the price of revenge, and the bravery required to forgive. It is also an exploration of how real and lasting friendships can surprisingly be forged from convoluted and tragic shared experiences. Lecoat says she hopes readers will experience “interesting female characters struggling with huge dilemmas, a page-turning story, and echoes of our contemporary world amid the 1945 setting — human nature never really changes.” She has achieved and exceeded that goal. Beyond Summerland is a unique and must-read volume for fans of World War II-era historical fiction.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.