Quiet but impactful.

This book is one of those books that not everyone can and will love because it actually doesn't tell a whole lot, nothing really happens.

We just follow different people that live in the same village, some from the "upper class" some from the "working class" and two younger people that fall in love despite those classifications.

In many ways this book is about a lot of different things, some of them are:

- family expectations in general, from feeling that you belong to a specific group even if you no longer fit into that group for what ever reason, wanting to do right by your family but also wanting to do what is right for you, and trying to figure out if one person in a family can do what they want even if it might go against the family's believes if it makes them happy.

- its also about changes in society, class systems and overall changes cased simply by time passing and changing. It talks about how the war changes priorities, how it changes the world and what it needs and with that changes how it works and what is expected of people.

- society in general
what is expected of specific members, from general specifications such as working class and higher standings, but also what is expected of newly married, single women or men, children and parents, pastors and even what is expected of an American woman that married an Englishman.

- mostly utterly realistic characters!
Most of the people in this book are actually that nice. But at the same time... can any of us really say that no matter what comes we are always nice and never look down at anyone? I certainly can't do that for myself. I try to always see the other side of things, but there are days that i honestly just don't care! Where i just want something done or over with and i am not fair to the other person i am dealing with. But thats life. And thats just reality. There is not one person on earth that can always be nice and friendly and helpful! And who would want that?
So it was so nice to read about utterly real characters, that while they might try and help others they also clearly think about what it would bring themselves if they do something for another person. And i think that is just such an honest portray of people in general that it was a delight to read about!
I don't mean that any of the characters where mean or bad.
They weren't!
But a mother cared about what her daughter would do, because she wanted the best for her.
Another person cared about what people would think about him/her if they went out the house looking a specific way.
Or what would happen if they went or didn't go someplace.
Or how can you expect of a mother to love her children equally if one fills her expectations but the other doesn't?

So it was nice to see that in a book and i really enjoyed that aspect.
Its also clearly something in the book that i can see other readers not enjoying at all.


overall this book to me was a fantastic view into daily life during the time right after the second world war ended in a way i haven't experience before.

Its quiet, its slow.

Nothing really happens, as already mentioned.

But I was transported back to the time around 1949, standing in a corner and simply observing the characters of the book as they live their lives.

And that was utterly fascinating for me.

If you love historical aspects, or want to experience a little window into the past, i highly recommend this book!

If you need actual plot, fast paced writing and action, this book will be disappointing to you!