Letters from Skye : a novel

by Brockmole, Jessica,

Format: Print Book 2013
Availability: Available at 11 Libraries 11 of 12 copies
Available (11)
Location Collection Call #
Brentwood Library Fiction FICTION Brockmole
Location  Brentwood Library
 
Collection  Fiction
 
Call Number  FICTION Brockmole
 
 
CLP - Brookline Fiction FICTION Brockmole
Location  CLP - Brookline
 
Collection  Fiction
 
Call Number  FICTION Brockmole
 
 
CLP - Main Library First Floor - Fiction Stacks FICTION Brockmole
Location  CLP - Main Library
 
Collection  First Floor - Fiction Stacks
 
Call Number  FICTION Brockmole
 
 
Community Library of Castle Shannon Fiction Fic Brockmol
Location  Community Library of Castle Shannon
 
Collection  Fiction
 
Call Number  Fic Brockmol
 
 
Green Tree Public Library Adult Fiction F BRO
Location  Green Tree Public Library
 
Collection  Adult Fiction
 
Call Number  F BRO
 
 
Monroeville Public Library Fiction BROCKMOLE Jessica
Location  Monroeville Public Library
 
Collection  Fiction
 
Call Number  BROCKMOLE Jessica
 
 
Mt. Lebanon Public Library Fiction BROCKMOLE Jessica
Location  Mt. Lebanon Public Library
 
Collection  Fiction
 
Call Number  BROCKMOLE Jessica
 
 
Northern Tier Regional Library Fiction FIC BROCK
Location  Northern Tier Regional Library
 
Collection  Fiction
 
Call Number  FIC BROCK
 
 
Northland Public Library Fiction FIC BROCKMOLE
Location  Northland Public Library
 
Collection  Fiction
 
Call Number  FIC BROCKMOLE
 
 
Pleasant Hills Public Library Adult Fiction Fic Brockmole
Location  Pleasant Hills Public Library
 
Collection  Adult Fiction
 
Call Number  Fic Brockmole
 
 
Shaler North Hills Library Fiction BROCKMOLE
Location  Shaler North Hills Library
 
Collection  Fiction
 
Call Number  BROCKMOLE
 
 
 
Unavailable (1)
Location Collection Status
Bethel Park Public Library Fiction CHECKED OUT
Location  Bethel Park Public Library
 
Collection  Fiction
 
Status  CHECKED OUT
 
 
Summary
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

A sweeping story told in letters, spanning two continents and two world wars, Jessica Brockmole's atmospheric debut novel captures the indelible ways that people fall in love, and celebrates the power of the written word to stir the heart.
 
March 1912: Twenty-four-year-old Elspeth Dunn, a published poet, has never seen the world beyond her home on Scotland's remote Isle of Skye. So she is astonished when her first fan letter arrives, from a college student, David Graham, in far-away America. As the two strike up a correspondence--sharing their favorite books, wildest hopes, and deepest secrets--their exchanges blossom into friendship, and eventually into love. But as World War I engulfs Europe and David volunteers as an ambulance driver on the Western front, Elspeth can only wait for him on Skye, hoping he'll survive.
 
June 1940: At the start of World War II, Elspeth's daughter, Margaret, has fallen for a pilot in the Royal Air Force. Her mother warns her against seeking love in wartime, an admonition Margaret doesn't understand. Then, after a bomb rocks Elspeth's house, and letters that were hidden in a wall come raining down, Elspeth disappears. Only a single letter remains as a clue to Elspeth's whereabouts. As Margaret sets out to discover where her mother has gone, she must also face the truth of what happened to her family long ago.
 
Sparkling with charm and full of captivating period detail, Letters from Skye is a testament to the power of love to overcome great adversity, and marks Jessica Brockmole as a stunning new literary voice.

Praise for Letters from Skye

" Letters from Skye is a captivating love story that celebrates the power of hope to triumph over time and circumstance."-- Vanessa Diffenbaugh, New York Times bestselling author of The Language of Flowers

"[A] remarkable story of two women, their loves, their secrets, and two world wars . . . [in which] the beauty of Scotland, the tragedy of war, the longings of the heart, and the struggles of a family torn apart by disloyalty are brilliantly drawn, leaving just enough blanks to be filled by the reader's imagination." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Tantalizing . . . sure to please readers who enjoyed other epistolary novels like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society ." --Stratford Gazette
 
"An absorbing and rewarding saga of loss and discovery." --Kate Alcott, New York Times bestselling author of The Dressmaker
 
"A sweeping and sweet (but not saccharine) love story." -- USA Today
 
"[A] dazzling little jewel." -- Richmond Times-Dispatch
Published Reviews
Booklist Review: "It's 1912 and David, an American college student, sends a fan letter to Elspeth, a young Scottish poet on the Isle of Skye. What begins as cordial correspondence grows into friendship and soon love with WWI as a backdrop. Elspeth is married, however, and David eventually volunteers as an ambulance driver, leaving Elspeth alone to wait and wonder. Flash forward to 1940 Edinburgh, where Elspeth's daughter, Margaret, has fallen in love with a young man going off to war. Nothing Elspeth says can dissuade Margaret from marrying. After an air raid, Elspeth disappears, and Margaret discovers the letters from David, which launches her on a mission to find out just what happened those many years ago. Told exclusively via letters between lovers, mother and daughter, and husband and wife, Brockmole's novel will make readers feel that they're illicitly reading someone's diary. But the letter convention has its drawbacks. It's difficult to get a full sense of who these characters are beyond what is written in their letters, which leaves them, at times, flat and two-dimensional.--Kubisz, Carolyn Copyright 2010 Booklist"
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Publisher's Weekly Review: "Brockmole uses letters to tell a remarkable story of two women, their loves, their secrets, and two world wars, cutting to the important matters that letter writers struggle to put into just the right words. In 1912, young poet Mrs. Elspeth Dunn, who has never left Scotland's Isle of Skye because of her fear of boats, receives her first fan letter from David Graham, a college student in Urbana, Ill. They begin a long correspondence. After Elspeth's husband goes off to war, she overcomes her fear and crosses to London to meet briefly with David, who is on his way to France to serve in the American Ambulance Field Service. Interspersed with Elspeth and David's letters are 1940 missives from Margaret, Elspeth's daughter, to her uncle and her fiance as she tries to find out about her father, since Elspeth will not talk about her past. The beauty of Scotland, the tragedy of war, the longings of the heart, and the struggles of a family torn apart by disloyalty are brilliantly drawn, leaving just enough blanks to be filled by the reader's imagination. Agent: Courtney Miller-Callihan, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved."
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Additional Information
Subjects Friendship -- Fiction.
Letter writing -- Fiction.
War stories.
Love stories.
Publisher New York :Ballantine Books,2013
Edition First edition.
Language English
Description 290 pages ; 22 cm
ISBN 9780345542601 (hardcover)
0345542606 (hardcover)
Other Classic View