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'The Postmistress'
Author: Sarah Blake


Format: Audiobook
Published: Penguin Audio; Feb. 2010
Narrator: Orlagh Cassidy
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: A
Source: Library


Synopsis: Weaving together the stories of three very different women loosely tied to each other, debut novelist Blake takes readers back and forth between small town America and war-torn Europe in 1940. Single, 40-year-old postmistress Iris James and young newlywed Emma Trask are both new arrivals to Franklin, Mass., on Cape Cod. While Iris and Emma go about their daily lives, they follow American reporter Frankie Bard on the radio as she delivers powerful and personal accounts from the London Blitz and elsewhere in Europe. While Trask waits for the return of her husband—a volunteer doctor stationed in England—James comes across a letter with valuable information that she chooses to hide. Blake captures two different worlds—a naïve nation in denial and, across the ocean, a continent wracked with terror—with a deft sense of character and plot, and a perfect willingness to take on big, complex questions, such as the merits of truth and truth-telling in wartime. 


My Take: I had heard about this book a lot last year. It had received rave reviews on a bunch of blogs and I knew I just had to read it! It was a book meant for me. It centered around women's lives in WWII. Story lines I always seem to gravitate towards. Yet, life and other books kept pushing it towards the bottom of the pile. Then, like a beacon in the night, it was on my library's audio book downloads list. Yes please! Also, it had one of my favorite narrators doing the voice, Orlagh Cassidy. You better believe I settled in to a book I loved.


For those of you who don't know, the book really centers around three women's lives right before the United States enters into World War II. I found this idea fascinating that it was about why and when the US would indeed enter the War and what part women played in this decision. 


Our title character, the postmistress, is Iris. She was actually my least favorite of the three women. An older single woman who loved and prided herself on the duties of her job in small town America, she wanted everyone to respect her duties. Yet when push came to shove and someone asked her to do the most important thing they could ask of her, it took her a long time to follow through. You'll have to read the book to understand what I am alluding to but her action, although understandable, really irked me.

Emma was one of Iris's friends in town when she was a newcomer to Franklin, Massachusetts. She was the wife of the doctor in town and was a bit of a loaner. Emma was shy and I felt bad for her a lot during the story. Her life seemed a little out of her hands, or did Emma just not quite know how to take control of it? Alas, she was a bit adrift during the book but I really felt for her.

Finally, we have Frankie, my favorite character and by far the most riveting in the story. In fact, I had thought the book should have been called The Reporter but it wasn't my book! Frankie was in London working for CBS news, telling Americans how the war in Europe was taking shape. Frankie had feelings and she wanted Americans to have the same compassion she did.

Eventually, these three women's lives will interweave and you will see how and why it comes to play that these women need to meet. War touches them all before it even really starts for the US and I found the storyline completely riveting and would recommend this to anyone who finds historical fiction and women's history interesting!

Cover Lust: See the letters underneath? Beautiful and compelling in it's simplicity!