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Three Reasons You Should Read This WWII Fiction:
- The Shut-Away Sisters by Suzanne Goldring is a look back into a family’s dark moment in their history and uncovering the secrets buried in the past.
- War changes people in different ways, and the sisters Florrie and Edith are perfect examples, being drawn apart and then back together.
- Poignant and realistic, The Shut-Away Sisters shows how family history can shape our view of the world today.
About The Shut-Away Sisters by Suzanne Goldring
Title: The Shut-Away Sisters
Author: Suzanne Goldring
Genre: WWII Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
Two ordinary sisters. A long and brutal war. A heroic sacrifice…
London, 1915. As German bombs rain down on the East End of London and hungry children queue for rations in the blistering cold, fifteen-year-old Florrie is forced to grow up fast. With her father fighting in the muddy trenches, Florrie turns to her older sister Edith for comfort. But the war has changed Edith. She has grown quiet, with dark shadows under her eyes, and has started leaving the house at night in secret. When Florrie follows her sister through the dark and winding streets of London, she is shocked by what she discovers. But she knows she must keep her sister’s secret for the sake of their family, even if she herself must pay the ultimate price…
Years later Kate, running from her broken relationship, is sorting through her dead aunt Florrie’s house, which she shared with her sister Edith. As she sits on the threadbare carpets, looking at photos of Florrie during the war, she notices the change in her aunt – from carefree young girl with a hopeful smile to a hollow-cheeked young woman, with dark sad eyes.
Determined to put her family’s ghosts to rest, Kate must unearth the secret past of her two aunts. Why is there a hidden locked room in the little house they shared? What is the story behind the abandoned wedding dress wrapped in tissue and tied up with a ribbon? And when Kate discovers the tragic secrets that have bound her family together, will she ever be able to move on?
My review of The Shut-Away Sisters:
Kate’s two great-aunts, Florrie and Edith, are really the stars of this book. Watching them grow up through Kate’s eyes as she reads through a diary offers an interesting view into their lives. Kate is only going through the diary because her life is in a bit of turmoil as well, but her story really takes a back seat to the past.
Florrie and Edith’s family actually does quite well in the war compared to those around them. They have set up a garden and are raising rabbits. But the boy Edith loves has gone to war and they may never see him again. As the years go by, the worry and unknown eat at Edith, and she begins to act very oddly.
Florrie, on the other hand, is quickly thrust into the role of caretaker. Even though she is the younger sister, she seems to be the only one holding the family together at times. The relationship between Florrie and Edith is the central point of the story. The sisterly disputes never outshine the love and devotion they feel for each other.
Meanwhile, Kate is navigating her relationship and career crisis in the present. The way her life changed and she came to appreciate the little things as she learned more about the past was quite sweet. I don’t really understand why her brothers and their families were such a prominent piece of her narrative. I feel like they mainly served to distract from her storyline and make her seem like an incredible person by giving me some awful people to compare her to. The book could have done without them.
**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**
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