The Little Wartime Library

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The author’s note at the end was as enjoyable as the novel! This is essential reading for bibliophiles around the world. When you close a library, bad things start to happen in the neighbourhood where the library used to be. The library is the glue that holds a community together and you only miss it after it has gone. "

I loved the book’s structure as the Prologue and Epilogue act like bookends to the main narrative. A story that thrums with vibrancy Informative and enlightening, heart-wrenching yet hopeful, this is a story that will stay with me. Fans of historical fiction and stories revolving around libraries would certainly enjoy this novel. So many families are homeless and a safe place is made for them to live underground, five thousand three tiered bunks are installed, it has a café, nursery, theater and a library. Clara’s a trained librarian and Ruby isn't your typical assistant, between them they make a great team and devise ingenious ways of lending out as many books as they can. Visiting factories and delivering books to shift workers, holding a nightly story time for the children, starting a boozy book club for their mothers, and Clara sends a letter to Canada asking for donations of children’s classic books. True story from the East End of London during WWII: The Bethnel Green library was destroyed by German bombs during the Blitz, and much of the surrounding neighborhood was destroyed as well. In a bit of serendipity, the Bethnel Green Tube station had not yet been put into service, so the space became the underground home for the community's displaced people. There was a cafe, a theater, ranks upon ranks of bunk beds, and a library. These ‘youngsters’ are now in their nineties, and memories of the little library are embedded in their hearts. “It was a sanctuary to me,” Pat, now 92 and living in Berkshire, told me. “By 1943, I was 14 and there had been so much horror, the Blitz, the Tube disaster. You can’t imagine what that library represented to me as a place of safety. It sparked a life-long love of reading.”

A story that thrums with vibrancy

Bethnal Green’s secret underground wartime library offers up a remarkable story that reveals how, even in the darkest of times, working-class East Enders had access to books, entertainment and culture.

Kate Thompson редуваше лекотата на общуването между всички герои със страшните моменти на обреченост. Толкова много мили персонажи загинаха безпричинно и заради това, че бяха на неподходящо място в неточния момент. Но както винаги живите трябва да продължат напред , дори ако едва преодоляват загубата, спомена или болката! Libraries in converted shops, in village halls, in mobile vans, are common enough. But libraries in Tube shelters are something new under the sun,” Stanley wrote with pride. Beautifully written with emotion this story is based on true events is heart-breaking and heart-warming at the same time as we see Clara and Ruby stand up for the people who need this library, Clara is the most caring person as is Ruby both have been through so much and deserve happiness. I loved getting to know the people who live in this underground world, I cried with them and cheered them one, anyone who loves reading and loves a library must read this story, it truly shows what a library means to so many people. I highly recommend this story, I loved it. From Sunday Times bestselling novelist Kate Thompson, The Little Wartime Library is a captivating work of historical fiction, inspired by one of the greatest resistance stories of WWII. I loved every word of this book. Kate Thompson’s research is, as always, impeccable. She brings the East End’s characters and war-weary to life in a way that never fails to enchant me. I’m envious of readers who have yet to experience The Little Wartime Library. Definitely a five-star read that I can’t recommend highly enough.This novel is a must for anyone who likes books set in this era and would like a glimpse into the lives and resilience of ordinary people in this harrowing time. Based on real life events, Kate Thompson has penned a beautifully written fictional story, which oozes strength and courage, resilience, resistance, and defiance. And the mainstay at the heart of this story is Clara Button. During the first week of the blitz, the Bethnal Green library was destroy, due to the war, construction of the Bethnal Green tube station had stopped and the vast empty space wasn’t being used. Despite losing her mentor, Clara Button and her assistant Ruby Munroe open an underground library and a sanctuary in London's East End. Young librarian and widow Clara Button works in the underground library during WW2. The library is located in the disused tube station in Bethnal Green. It’s an actual godsend in many ways = not only from the bombs but from the daily grind. This is where people can meet and talk as well as there being so many books there! I loved the people who worked there and I felt I really got to know them very well really early on.

The enforced silence just compounded the survivors’ feelings of guilt. Rescuers’ hair turned grey overnight, whole families were torn apart – Patsy lost five members of her family on her father’s side. Words cannot describe how brilliant The Little Wartime Library is. This novel captured my attention and my heart. The narration is shared in alternating turns by Clara the librarian at the center of it all and gutsy Ruby her assistant from the lower class London East End, a shining character who I enjoyed quite a lot. They were up against those, mostly male authority, who thought they knew better whether there should be a library or not and their own personal pains, losses, secrets, and demons filled in the conflict. But, like old-style bartenders with Google-savvy minds, the librarians were more than book pushers and really heard out people and dispensed advice and help with their book offerings (hats off to the librarians who are still at it today). I loved seeing Clara and Ruby making a difference for this unique community living in the underground tubes (subways) after the bombs started pounding aboveground London to bits. I liked the little romance for Clara though she’s getting past her loss so it wasn’t the forefront of the story. Thompson takes these facts and spins a marvelous story of friendship, found family, and community. All of the characters are so well developed that they became real people to me. I laughed, I cried, and I worried right along with them. And I galloped through the book, resenting the intrusions of Real Life that kept me from reading. I need to know What Happened Next. I appreciated that the author set the story in the later stages of the war (1944-45), so that we could see the cumulative strains and weariness from coping and striving to 'carry on'. Finding out about the library was nothing short of magic’ ... Kate Thompson. Photograph: Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives

Many thanks to Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this exceptional novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.