Young @ Heart Book Club Reading the Places They Have Been

When you read a book set in a place you’ve visited or lived in, you recognise the streets and buildings, the smells, sounds, and tastes that are right on the tip of your tongue. It makes the story even more alive and carries you away from the everyday. Some of our book club regulars have travelled the world to every exotic location you can imagine. Here some books we’ve read from places they’ve been:

The Bookbinder of Jericho and The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams took our readers back to the university city of Oxford. Pip Williams writes well researched feminist historical fiction. This pair of related books is set in Oxford during WW1, and explores the ideas of class, disability, education and the opportunities available for women in life and work. Our book clubbers enjoyed both but agreed that Dictionary was the best of the two. It follows Esme as she dedicates her outward life to her father’s dream of compiling the Oxford English Dictionary but secretly is compiling a very different list of words and beliefs about women’s place in the world.

Many WWII stories are based in France, but The Dressmaker and the Hidden Soldier by Doug Gold stands out for its Greek setting. It is based on the startling true story of Peter Blunden and Patrick Minogue, New Zealand soldiers, Thalia Christidou, a young Greek dressmaker, and Tasoula Paschilidou, a resistance heroine.

Peter and Patrick are POWs being transported by the Nazis when they escape by leaping from the train. They are rescued and hidden by Tasoula, eventually discovered by Thalia and remain determined to return to their regiment. Because it is based on real events, the ending is not neatly wrapped up, but very moving and highlights the bravery, courage and difficult decisions people make in terrible situations.

One of our members told us about travelling in Greece and having complete strangers ask them to stay because they were New Zealanders and how they continued this friendship over the years. Others had similar stories from Corfu and Italy, showing how NZ soldiers made an impression.

The Return by Victoria Hislop wasn’t a crowd favourite compared to Hislop’s other books, but the Granada setting was the reason our reader chose it, as she had travelled there. It tells the story of a family during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. One son is a bullfighter, one a teacher, one is slowly taking over responsibility for the family café. The daughter is a brilliant flamenco dancer searching for her lost love during the war. Despite the improbable plot vehicle (confused British housewife learns flamenco) it is a moving book where the trials and tribulations of the Ramirez family are totally believable and draw you in. The descriptions are excellent, particularly the bullfighting and dancing, and evoked memories of being in Spain.

Bournville by Johnathan Coe is a funny and clever novel about the quiet suburb in Britain that is home to the famous chocolate factory. It spans 75 years of social change in Britain which we see through the eyes of various characters considering their lot. Coe is a master at describing the thoughts of ‘middle England’ in ways that help you understand why the country functions as it does. One of our book club members grew up in the village – her Dad was Santa on the Bournville float and she was a Christmas fairy. Another has a husband who grew up there, so we loved hearing tales of life in Bournville.

6 September 2024

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