Keeping Secrets

The Invitation by Veronica Henry is a powerful dual timeline novel that consumed me from the start.

The main body of the book is set in 1953 in Somerset. We also hear of World War II in snippets as we follow a family in peacetime and in war.

Peacetime took some adjusting to. “War didn’t just end with life going back to normal… There were scars.” People lost loved ones in war and the pain was just too much to bear. “You never really got over losing someone you loved… Had they lived their dreams before they died?” The loss digs down deep. “Something inside her had broken, the day he died.” Life will never be the same again. “Sometimes she thought her grief had grabbed her… pulling her down into a pit of despair.” Waves of grief come rolling in. “Grief was not measurable. One person didn’t suffer more than another after a tragic loss.” The loss of one man rocks his whole family… As I write this, I have just lost my Dad, and this quote sums up our family’s life now.

War saw people pulling together. “Everyone pulled together in times of adversity but there were still rules. Shop girls didn’t belong to posh boys.” The class system still existed and was slow to be eroded. Love blossomed where it fell. Love was no respecter of class. Life was to be grabbed, and the consequences to be faced later.

War brought opportunities for women. Their lives opened up – and then the men came home and women were expected to return to the shadows. This disrupted lives.

Characters fell into patterns of bad behaviour due to loss. When they reflected backwards, guilt became the master. “Being consumed with guilt served no purpose.”

We learn about war artists. “The pure power that art had to tell the truth.” A picture can convey more than a thousand words.

Family is everything. It is not always blood related but it is those who love us.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Invitation. It was an epic read that entertained and warmed my heart.

JULIA WILSON