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rach345's review against another edition
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
lefthandedlooney's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
blodeuedd's review against another edition
2.0
It seems this book wasn't what I thought it was about, but that was just fun.
It's a book about 3 people, even though it focuses mostly on 2 of them. First there is a Jewish captain who is sent to see if Rudolf Hess is crazy or not. He is being held prisoner in Welsh. Then there is the main focus of the story, Esther, a 17 year old Welsh girl. She works in the local pub, and she longs to see more of the world outside. She meets a soldier, Colin, who is there building a POW camp. He is also an English soldier, and she hides knowing him.
It's also the story of a German soldier, we meet him before he was capture and learns why he went to war. And then he end up in a Welsh POW camp.
Rooted in the story is the word cynefin, it has no English meaning. It has to do with the sheep, they know where to stay on the hill and never venture further. The know where they belong. It's seen through out the novel, Esther wants to escape, the Jewish captain who's mother is Lutheran and he is too, still he had to flee. And he keeps saying he is not Jewish. And at last, Karsten, the POW, who ordered his men to surrender to save them, and is troubled by this.
There is also the nationalistic angle in this book, the Welsh frown upon the English that is everywhere and they can't even write letters in Welsh cos the censures can't understand it.
It's a good book, I read it easily and I wanted to know what would happen. It was very well-written, but even if I didn't love the book it was worth reading
Not that i so much about Rotheram, the Jewish captain but he was an interesting character. He started and ended the book. I did like Esther, I felt that i could understand her and her doubts. And I even liked Karsten. It's not a book that points and says he is the bad guy, no they all have faults, and they all have those things that make you understand them. He has managed to capture something genuine in this book.
I will give the book a 3/5, because even if it was a great book, I felt it was just ok. Worth reading yes, but that all depends on the person reading
It's a book about 3 people, even though it focuses mostly on 2 of them. First there is a Jewish captain who is sent to see if Rudolf Hess is crazy or not. He is being held prisoner in Welsh. Then there is the main focus of the story, Esther, a 17 year old Welsh girl. She works in the local pub, and she longs to see more of the world outside. She meets a soldier, Colin, who is there building a POW camp. He is also an English soldier, and she hides knowing him.
It's also the story of a German soldier, we meet him before he was capture and learns why he went to war. And then he end up in a Welsh POW camp.
Rooted in the story is the word cynefin, it has no English meaning. It has to do with the sheep, they know where to stay on the hill and never venture further. The know where they belong. It's seen through out the novel, Esther wants to escape, the Jewish captain who's mother is Lutheran and he is too, still he had to flee. And he keeps saying he is not Jewish. And at last, Karsten, the POW, who ordered his men to surrender to save them, and is troubled by this.
There is also the nationalistic angle in this book, the Welsh frown upon the English that is everywhere and they can't even write letters in Welsh cos the censures can't understand it.
It's a good book, I read it easily and I wanted to know what would happen. It was very well-written, but even if I didn't love the book it was worth reading
Not that i so much about Rotheram, the Jewish captain but he was an interesting character. He started and ended the book. I did like Esther, I felt that i could understand her and her doubts. And I even liked Karsten. It's not a book that points and says he is the bad guy, no they all have faults, and they all have those things that make you understand them. He has managed to capture something genuine in this book.
I will give the book a 3/5, because even if it was a great book, I felt it was just ok. Worth reading yes, but that all depends on the person reading
emilyisreading2024's review against another edition
5.0
I enjoyed this book very much. It is so well written and a beautiful story that I plan to re-read again some day.
fawnponzar's review against another edition
4.0
The POV of switching narratives was a bit confusing. I wish the writer would have stuck with Esther throughout. The ending with Rotherham could have been so much more— many things left out. However, I enjoyed learning a bit about Wales and the feud with England. Book offered a different perspective on WWII. I did enjoy the major metaphors regarding lambs, nations, mother- vs fatherlands.
karieh13's review against another edition
3.0
It took me over a month to read “The Welsh Girl” – and I’m not sure why. I know I am in the minority in my lukewarm reception of this book (please see “Long-listed for Man Booker Prize”). It’s certainly not as if the characters were not well drawn, the time and place carefully crafted, the story less than compelling…and yet…and yet.
I suppose the best way to describe my hesitation with this book is that I always felt as arms length. Even when inside the thoughts and hearts of Esther, Karsten and Rotherham…I felt as if the essence of what they were thinking and feeling were closed off. I didn’t FEEL their feelings, didn’t SEE what they were seeing…
That being said, it is undeniable that this novel, set during World War II in North Wales, is beautifully crafted. The descriptions of time and place were excellent; the characters seem ones transported in time for the reader to meet.
There were parts that I couldn’t help but read twice – parts that broke through the fourth wall for me.
“…his progress reminds Esther of how the dogs part a flock. Sheepish, she thinks. The villagers feel sheepish. The word appears before her in her own flowing copperplate. She’s been having these spells lately when words, English words, seem newly coined, as if they’re speaking to her alone, as if she’s seeing the meanings behind them. She’s conscious of her lips, her tongue, forming them.”
And there are moments when I can see the village so clearly that I feel I am truly there. “Within the fence, the faces of the Germans and MPs turn up to the slope to where the villagers stand. Hands are angled to shield eyes against the sun; arms are lifted, pointing. Esther finds herself blushing, embarrassed to be caught staring, but even as she turns away, Mott, at her feet, lifts his head and offers a long howl of replay to the snapping dogs below.”
I’ve gone over and over that paragraph and I can’t put my finger on it…but something about those words take me there – I can feel the sun on my face, making me squint…I can see the prisoners pointing up, I can hear the dog and I can smell grass and animals nearby.
And there are some small moments when the thin wall cracks and I can feel the emotions of the characters.
“He was serious, Karsten saw, the answer deeply important to him. For just a moment, he wanted to cry yes! and have done with it. For just a moment, he could feel the cool relief of admitting it, even to this child. He was almost certain the boy would rather have his friend alive and a coward than brave and dead. All he had to do was say it. Yet something inside him recoiled. Some pride, some recollection of those dreadful steps down the passage out of the bunker.”
There I am able to feel those tightly wound emotions straining to explode – I can feel the pulse of the story. And once more with Esther:
“Esther looks at her through her tears and nods slowly. She does have hope, she realizes. All this time she’s thought Rhys dead, and now she hopes, prays, that he is.”
Maybe because these characters, in the short period of time when their lives intersect, live in circumstances where they cannot give reign to their emotions, cannot let their guard down for even a moment – maybe that is the distance I feel from their story.
This tale of bravery and defeat, of cowardice and unacknowledged heroism, is one I wanted to appreciate more. But maybe, this is one of those books where when read again, at a different point in my life, will have a greater impact.
I suppose the best way to describe my hesitation with this book is that I always felt as arms length. Even when inside the thoughts and hearts of Esther, Karsten and Rotherham…I felt as if the essence of what they were thinking and feeling were closed off. I didn’t FEEL their feelings, didn’t SEE what they were seeing…
That being said, it is undeniable that this novel, set during World War II in North Wales, is beautifully crafted. The descriptions of time and place were excellent; the characters seem ones transported in time for the reader to meet.
There were parts that I couldn’t help but read twice – parts that broke through the fourth wall for me.
“…his progress reminds Esther of how the dogs part a flock. Sheepish, she thinks. The villagers feel sheepish. The word appears before her in her own flowing copperplate. She’s been having these spells lately when words, English words, seem newly coined, as if they’re speaking to her alone, as if she’s seeing the meanings behind them. She’s conscious of her lips, her tongue, forming them.”
And there are moments when I can see the village so clearly that I feel I am truly there. “Within the fence, the faces of the Germans and MPs turn up to the slope to where the villagers stand. Hands are angled to shield eyes against the sun; arms are lifted, pointing. Esther finds herself blushing, embarrassed to be caught staring, but even as she turns away, Mott, at her feet, lifts his head and offers a long howl of replay to the snapping dogs below.”
I’ve gone over and over that paragraph and I can’t put my finger on it…but something about those words take me there – I can feel the sun on my face, making me squint…I can see the prisoners pointing up, I can hear the dog and I can smell grass and animals nearby.
And there are some small moments when the thin wall cracks and I can feel the emotions of the characters.
“He was serious, Karsten saw, the answer deeply important to him. For just a moment, he wanted to cry yes! and have done with it. For just a moment, he could feel the cool relief of admitting it, even to this child. He was almost certain the boy would rather have his friend alive and a coward than brave and dead. All he had to do was say it. Yet something inside him recoiled. Some pride, some recollection of those dreadful steps down the passage out of the bunker.”
There I am able to feel those tightly wound emotions straining to explode – I can feel the pulse of the story. And once more with Esther:
“Esther looks at her through her tears and nods slowly. She does have hope, she realizes. All this time she’s thought Rhys dead, and now she hopes, prays, that he is.”
Maybe because these characters, in the short period of time when their lives intersect, live in circumstances where they cannot give reign to their emotions, cannot let their guard down for even a moment – maybe that is the distance I feel from their story.
This tale of bravery and defeat, of cowardice and unacknowledged heroism, is one I wanted to appreciate more. But maybe, this is one of those books where when read again, at a different point in my life, will have a greater impact.
rachel_mft's review against another edition
2.0
Meh. I just could not get into this. In theory it should have been good--interesting themes, complex characters, the author explores several truly interesting questions--but it lacked motion, and I just wanted to be done with it.
hantolly79's review against another edition
2.0
This book was ok, a fairly standard holiday read, but really I feel that the author had two good ideas and decided to condense them - at the expense of the real development of both. I also found it very predictable.
wayfaring_witch's review against another edition
2.0
Library book was due, and someone requested it. Part of the reason I didn't finish it was that I wasn't that into it, so that could be part of the reason. Still, I didn't get into the bulk of the story so I give it hope. Supposedly a romance, but I was 1/3 in and what I assume to be the happy couple haven't met yet.
Page 121.
Page 121.
shanviolinlove's review against another edition
5.0
"There's no morality about the impossible, Captain. To us, you must understand, this was like climbing Everest, like going to the moon. We couldn't believe such a thing was possible, and that's how we could do it." Overcoming the impossible, just like overcoming cultural/national boundaries and one's struggle to maintain honor, is a recurring theme throughout Davies' beautiful first novel. Set in the sweeping hills of Wales, rife with love, pain, jealousy, friendship, Davies carries a tender and poignant multifaceted story reflected from the Welsh, German, and British sides. Casting a sympathetic glow upon the Germans, who are typically vilified in WWII novels, Karsten is portrayed as a victim of extenuating circumstances; his love for his "fatherland," a patriotism as unadulterated and as genuine as that of the men he fights against, his valor, and his superior skills in the military, are all thwarted when he is forced to surrender, branding him as a traitor and coward. Among his own people, he is victimized and ostracized.
Paralleling Karsten's story is that of Esther, barmaid and teenage daughter of widowed sheep herder Arthur Evans, who embodies the love and patriotism of Wales. Proud of the British presence in their village, yet resentful, due to the tides of their history ebbing and flowing in daily interaction, the Welsh negotiate the shared space with the British, until they learn that their village is meant to be converted into a POW camp. Esther, who can relate to the burden of dishonor and fear of being discovered, channels this into an unexpected encounter with Karsten. The Welsh girl now holds England in one hand and Germany in the other, overcoming the boundaries as she discovers the individual behind the nation.
Paralleling Karsten's story is that of Esther, barmaid and teenage daughter of widowed sheep herder Arthur Evans, who embodies the love and patriotism of Wales. Proud of the British presence in their village, yet resentful, due to the tides of their history ebbing and flowing in daily interaction, the Welsh negotiate the shared space with the British, until they learn that their village is meant to be converted into a POW camp. Esther, who can relate to the burden of dishonor and fear of being discovered, channels this into an unexpected encounter with Karsten. The Welsh girl now holds England in one hand and Germany in the other, overcoming the boundaries as she discovers the individual behind the nation.