BY CATHERINE ARMITSTEAD

 

AN OLD suitcase and a mysterious letter set a young woman searching for clues to a family secret. In the meantime, she has romantic troubles of her own to solve.

Roberta works in a bookshop, alongside her scruffy and sardonic boss, Philip, and beautiful female colleagues. While sorting through a suitcase of books, she comes across a letter relating to her babunia, her grandmother. This sets her, and us, on a quest to find out more about her grandmother’s past, who she loved and the child she raised.

The author interweaves the grandmother’s, Dorothy’s, perspective into the story. This becomes a second driver to the narrative, in conjunction with Roberta’s experiences.

The two women’s stories allow the author to draw parallels between them and comment on female lives in both periods. Roberta lives with her cat, worries about her ill father, and an unrewarding, "soulless" relationship with a married man. For her "aloneness is the shell in which I gratefully hide".

Dorothy, who married in the 1940s, is also home alone, deserted by her husband but letting people think that he has joined the war effort. Two land girls are billeted to her house, bringing excitement to her domestic routine. Then a charming Polish squadron leader, Jan Pietrykowski, enters the story.

In the modern day, Roberta re-reads the letter she found. It seems to be a love letter from Jan to her grandmother, but it says that he cannot forgive Dorothy for what she has done. This creates the main intrigue for Roberta and the reader about what happened, and what Babunia did to merit such harsh words. The female characters are independent and coping on their own. Men have treated them badly, although the women acknowledge their own responsibilities and weaknesses in their relationships, as well as their essential wants and needs. Pregnancy and motherhood are central themes, alongside loss and loneliness.

With such warm and sympathetic main characters, the book holds our interest to the end. There are neat details, such as the messages on letters and cards, found between the covers of books, the key characters' thoughts and descriptions of their day-to-day activities in their different periods of history. Whilst sad and poignant at times, the tone is far from heavy. Rather, it is an affecting and down-to-earth story about female issues as represented in this family. They, like all of us, are seeking consolation, love and happiness, rather than isolation.

 

This book was published by Hodder and is available to buy for £6.99. It can also be borrowed from The Hive as well as other Worcestershire libraries. Click here to check availability and check it out.