A story of love and fear (That Summer - Andrew Greig)

Member Name: Hope

Product:	That Summer - Andrew Greig
Date:	10/02/01 (636 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Evocative language, engaging story

Disadvantages: Perhaps a bit predictable

This is a beautiful love story set against the background of the Battle of Britain. It is told from the points of view of both the man and the woman involved, mainly through diary type narrative. The man is in the RAF, fighting alongside some heroic Polish pilots, and the woman is a radar operator.

Their stories bring the period alive as they go through a rollercoaster of emotions, knowing that they might commit to each other only to lose what they have just found. We see how they are in their different ways affected by fear and death, as well as comradeship in their particular occupations, and hope for the future.

As would be expected, the progress of their love is bitter-sweet, although I will not spoil what might be seen as a slightly predictable story. However, it is well worth a read and is quite thought-provoking for generations who did not live through the war. It really brings the period alive and gives a good impression of what life really may have been like for young people enduring that frightening time.

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