EVERYONE BRAVE IS FORGIVEN | CHRIS CLEAVE | 2016

It’s funny how meeting the author can give you a different perspective on a book.

At first I thought this a very light-weight story with a thin, almost formulaic story line. Upper class girl volunteers during WW2, works in educating children not suitable to be evacuated, there’s destroyed buildings, horrific bombings and a triangular love story. She changes; all the characters change on their journey though the war. All sounds like the premise for a good book however I found the characters superficial and the whole story lacked depth.

Having said all that, the writing is lovely and it’s very well written and edited with no bloopers or anachronisms, nothing to give pause for thought. Except for the dialogue which didn’t ring true, and the reactions of the characters to war seemed one-dimensional.

Now back to meeting the writer at a book event and how I gained a different perspective. Chris Cleave explained in some depth the connection between his grandfather and the book’s story line. This brought it alive for me and then I understood that this is a very subtle book. Chris Cleave is not a grandstander or a loud mouth and his writing reflects this. I still stand by my opinion of the book but now understand it a whole lot better