Fabulous Fiction Firsts #534

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 8:23pm by muffy

London playwright and actor Jason Hewitt's debut The Dynamite Room * has been called "(a)ccomplished, resonant and surprising." ~ The Guardian.

In July 1940, 11-year-old Lydia, an evacuee in Wales tracks home to the seaside town of Grayfriar, gas mask in tow, only to find it eerily deserted. With her father and brother in active service, Lydia settles into their shuttered home to wait her mother's return. Her first night there, Lydia is awaken from her troubled sleep by an intruder - a gun-wielding, wounded German soldier in British uniform, who won't hurt Lydia as long as she does not leave the house.

Over the course of six sweltering summer days, the two warily coexist in their claustrophobic confines, becoming dependent on each other for survival. Lydia soon realizes that Heiden, a Berlin cellist before the war, knows more than he should about her family; and suspects that he is plotting and preparing them for something far beyond his orders.

"In this fine balance of taut suspense and tragedy, Hewitt has created an emotionally charged character study in which he explores the loneliness, fear, hope, and shame that war visits on ordinary people."

An obvious readalike to Bette Greene's Summer of My German Soldier, but will likely appeal to those who enjoyed William Trevor's The Story of Lucy Gault; Ian McEwan's Atonement; and Pat Barker's Toby's Room.

* = starred review