Letters from Skye, by Jessica Brochmole
Ballantine Books, to be published in July 2013
“Letters from Skye” is an epistolary novel – revealed completely through letters. But it has a twist, in that the letters are exchanged during two separate wars, by two couples linked by a mother-daughter relationship.
Ballantine Books, to be published in July 2013
“Letters from Skye” is an epistolary novel – revealed completely through letters. But it has a twist, in that the letters are exchanged during two separate wars, by two couples linked by a mother-daughter relationship.
Elspeth Dunn, 24, married and lonely, is a young poet living
on Scotland’s Isle of Skye in 1912. Her work has been published and has met
with some success when she receives a fan letter from a young American, David
Graham. Their friendship in letters deepens with time and becomes love when
Elspeth realizes she shares more of an emotional bond with David than her own
distant, gruff soldier-husband. David’s subsequent enrollment in the war, as an
ambulance driver, brings him closer to Elspeth’s world.
But another voice—and another exchange of letters—enters the
story with Elspeth’s daughter, Margaret, in 1940. Margaret is in love with her
childhood friend Paul, a pilot in the Royal Air Force. Their letters begin to
document a love story from another generation, unencumbered by some of the societal
constrictions Elspeth and David faced, and undiluted by the Elspeth’s warnings
to her daughter that a relationship during wartime is troubled from the start.
Margaret is unaffected by her mother’s dire predictions, but
when Elspeth disappears after Margaret has read one of a collection of letters
found in her mother’s belongings, Margaret sets out to find her—and discover
her mother’s secrets.
The intertwined letters of mother and daughter, against the
love stories woven between lovers during two world wars, reveal no villains or tragic flaws.
More, they reflect the tragedies that occur in a world shaken by war.
Hunger, suspicion, betrayal, deception, and grief all wrap themselves around Elspeth
when she falls in love with David, risking her family’s approval. In the
1940s, however, we find these deathly courtiers mostly absent from Margaret’s life. Her
fears for Paul’s safety, and terror at his silences, are met with her lover’s
reassurance, his support, his unfailing love.
Reading Elspeth’s story, as we are drawn deeper into the
exchange of letters she shares with David, we wonder what has happened since
the first war to leave Elspeth alone, or nearly so, and deeply saddened by her
life. How, we wonder, could someone as devoted to her as David seems to be
have left? Or did he die?
Brockmole’s upcoming novel, being published in July,
explores this mystery patiently, as time passes and lovers are lost, regained,
and lost again. With the unraveling comes the tension created by a skilled storyteller,
teasing the reader with allusions to the present decade and World War II, played
against the very different love story of Elspeth. Will she and her daughter
shared the same fate—and what, in truth, was that fate? We won’t know until,
like voyeurs exploring an attic box of letters, we come upon the last letter.
“Letters from Skye” is a good read, one that
brings to life the fears and losses of wartime in any generation—but especially
during these two seminal wars. Brockmole’s writing style is simple and light,
unfettered by plot confusion or too much time travel between scenes. The lack
of much complexity in the characters is a disappointment, but not a deal
breaker. There is insight into their hearts and minds, revealing courage and
allowing the reader to watch as they weigh their options and make
their choices, for better or worse.
This format is a little unusual, but not unique: Wilkie
Collins and Bram Stroker employed it in their novels, and Mary Shelley
dramatized “Frankenstein” through letters. It’s a little hard to embark without
the aid of a narrator, but one soon learns enough through the letters to feel
close to the characters and their trials.
