It will appeal to those of us who love Poirot, Downton Abbey, Jane Austen and Vera Brittain. You can wrap it around you like summer shawl and while away quite a few hours. This book is a gentle and comforting summer read and a bit of a brick at 465 pages. The story revolves around a new female Latin teacher, a close family of an aunt, uncle and two nephews and various other townsfolk who represent both the more liberal and the stuffier aspects of English culture. The setting is the small East Sussex town of Rye and the era, of course, Edwardian. As in Major Pettigrew, the story is quintessentially English but this book takes place in the first month and year of World War I. The Summer Before the War is the latest offering and second novel of English author Helen Simonson, whose debut novel the Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand made all the best seller lists.
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