Review: Everyone Brave is Forgiven

Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was somewhat reluctant about this book, as I've read many WW2 books lately and I was a bit bored with the subject. I didn't know what kind of war book it was going to be and was surprised by the story.

Young Mary North drops out of finishing school in Switzerland as soon as she hears war has been declared, telegraphs the Home Office asking for a job and rushes to London. There, she finds out that she will be teaching young children, as most of the teachers are joining the war.

Rich and kind of useless, she does manage to be quite a good teacher, especially to young Zachary, the only black boy in the class, son of an American jazz musician. However, that's not what the other teachers think, so they fire her as soon as possible.

Trying to get her job back, she meets Tom Shaw and falls in love with him. But when Tom is killed in an air raid, her whole world falls apart.

The two main points of the story are the war seen from the city, as in Mary's life and the other side of the story, focused on Alistair, Tom's friend who is in the trenches. This is the scary war part.

Mary and Tom start a relationship as they write letters to each other, but will it survive the war?

I really liked this book, but I have to give it 3 stars because it's so slow. There are parts that -for me- could have been much more agile (Alistair in the island, for example)

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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