Last Christmas in Paris

Authors : Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb

After Remarkably Bright Creatures , I am fortunate to have found another great book in succession . There is a joy in reading good books back to back , it’s not very frequent I encounter this spree .

I am forever in love with the book, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society . So I went around asking for similar recommendations and was rewarded with this beautiful romance , set during world war 1.

This book , similar to Guernsey, is epistolar, written in the form of a series of letters . Two childhood friends , Will and Tom , in a zeal of enthusiasm and higher purpose of duty , sign up for war in the name of their country and the queen . They are posted at the war front in France to fight against the Germans . Will’s spirited sister Evelyn ( Evie ) , a strong feminist writes frequent letters to her brother and his friend to support the two men morally . Based on the controlled news released by the government in England , they all are under the impression that the victory bells are around the corner and the soldiers will be back home by Christmas . Little do they know that it is just the beginning of one of the bloodiest wars which was fought in the history of mankind .

What keeps them alive in all this despair is the power of words , literature and poetry , poetry no less than the likes of Shakespeare , Yeats and Blake . As every year passes and the war intensifies , Evie and Tom keep their hopes up with their lengthy conversations back and forth through letters .

Hopelessly romantic , the lovers secretly and desperately dream of a day when the horrors will end and they can spend time together in the most romantic city of the world , Paris .

To summarize , there is war , tragedy, loss , injuries , bloodshed and politics , things which require a strong morale fiber and supposedly demonstrate the strength of man power . There is also lot of knitting , cooking , parties and gardening , things which women were constrained to in those days, even during war times. But then there comes paper , pen , ink , letters and poetry . Slowly and steadily , the power of words takes over everything and gives hope to everyone , even in the dreariest of circumstances . Literature has the magic to make even the strongest of humans kinder and empathetic and gives the weakest , the strength to stand up and face the obstacles.

Rating : 👍👍👍👍👍

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