Charlotte Gray by
Sebastian Faulks

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Written with a comparable passion, power and breadth of vision, Charlotte Gray is Sebastian Faulks first novel since Birdsong. It is 1942: London is blacked out, but France is under a greater darkness, as the Vichy regime clings ever closer to the Nazi occupier in their danse macabre. From Edinburgh, Charlotte Gray, a volatile but determined young woman, travels south. In London she conceives a dangerous passion for an English airman. Charlotte goes to France on an errand for a British organisation helping the Resistance and for her own private purposes. Unknown to her, she is also being manipulated by people with no regard for her safety. As the weeks go by Charlotte finds that the struggle for France's soul is intimately linked to her battle to take control of her own life. Charlotte Gray examines the lost domains of the past, the limits of memory and the redemptive power of art. It is also a brilliant evocation of life in Occupied France, filled with memorable characters, such as Julien Levade, the local Resistance leader, and his father, a painter and reformed libertine. As the people in the village of Lavaurette prepare to meet their terrible destiny, the truth of what took place in the 'dark years' is finally revealed. These harrowing scenes are presented with the compassion and narrative power that readers will recall from Birdsong which was nominated for the 1996 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. With Charlotte Gray, Sebastian Faulks concludes his French trilogy of novels which began with The Girl at Lion d'Or and Birdsong. His other books include A Fools' Alphabet and The Fatal Englishman. After a period in France, he and his family now live in London.

Here's what the members of the Reading Group based at our Raheny branch library think of Charlotte Gray:

It is 1942 and Charlotte Gray, a young Scottish woman, is sent to France after being recruited by "G Section". She had spent her childhood holidays in that country and has a profound romantic attachment to it. Once there, her apparently simple job as a courier allows her to search for a young airman with whom she has had a brief intense affair before he went missing. She is prepared to risk her life for this man. Wartime London is captured by Faulks, the drab clothes, dark streets, sparse food. He is equally good with Vichy France. His little town of Lavaurette is a microcosm of life in an occupied country. However, unlike his previous excellent novel Birdsong this novel does engage the heart. Charlotte never really comes to life. She is quite a complex character yet one does not become emotionally engaged with her. It is an interesting book but does not touch the heart.
(Member of the Raheny Library Group)