SOJALS rating:

Very good (4/5)

I first read this in 2011 and most recently on the 6th February 2021

This is the first of the two novels covering World War II. The second is "All Clear".

Time-travel has been invented and in 2060 historians travel back in time to major historical events. It is a tenet of the theory that time traveller's cannot affect the past, because the continuum will prevent it. However for those visiting the Second World War it is looking increasingly likely that their inadvertent actions may result in the War being lost, hopelessly and without remedy.

Connie Willis' inimitable prose leads you on a roller-coaster ride through the London Blitz of World War II. It is thrilling, emotional and humorous. More than I would have believed possible, she brings home the reality of the War, in particular the Blitz, and the bravery of the individuals - both those who went to fight and those who supported them back home - whose contributions large and small resulted in the defeat of Hitler.

Let digress into a personal story: my dear Aunt Janet, now sadly deceased, was a young teenager at school in London during the Blitz. One day a bomb dropped in her street. She ran straight out of school towards her home, fearful that her family had been killed. She was terrified when she saw ghostly white figures appear before the flames. The figures were shop workers covered in plaster dust and her family were safe. Connie's novel is full of experiences like this and of the stoicism of the people who had to endure Blitz day after day.