The Summer Before the war

Locations
Call Number: Fiction / Simonson, Helen
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Simonson, Helen	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Simonson, Helen	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Simonson, Helen	4-week checkout	On Shelf

Arriving in the village of Rye, England, in 1914, Beatrice Nash, a young woman of good family, becomes the first female teacher of Latin at the local school and falls in love with her sponsor's nephew.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Small town WWI story features determined young woman submitted by Library Lindsay on June 26, 2016, 11:23am The Summer Before the War is a work of historical fiction that follows the antics of a small town and its inhabits up through the initial months of World War I. Beatrice Nash, a young Latin teacher, is our ticket into the small town of Rye. She is a strong female character who is wrestling with what it means to be independent in 1914.

Simonson evokes a strong sense of place and each of the charming characters is authentic to their era and social status. As the story progresses, Simonson reveals the complexity of her characters. Take Agatha Kent. She is a well-to-do women who is Beatrice's initial champion. We learn, however, that she has other causes and operates within the constraints of her reputation.

The intricate plot is partly driven by the looming World War and also very much a tale of flawed characters. The relationships between the characters - whether they seek to help or harm each other - are central to the story. So, the focus of the book is mostly on the subtle social negotiations of the small town. I rooted for the success of my favorites and abhored the tactics of those who would impede their happiness. One weakness of the book is that the passages describing the more subtle social machinations are difficult to decipher.

The pace intensifies as the war begins and the end of the book follows Agatha's nephew Hugh Grange more closely. While I like Hugh, a young surgeon, by following his story so closely at the end I felt a lack of resolution about Beatrice Nash.

Recommended for fans of historical fiction seeking to bask in small town England in 1914.