The Welsh Girl (edit title)

• Rated 3 stars

“It was entertaining, but I felt the ending was abrupt and the epilogue unsatisfying. Told from the POV of three characters whose lives intersect in WWII Wales, the story isn't fleshed out the way I would have liked. Of the three characters, Esther is the most intriguing. The entire novel could have focused on her and I think it would have been a better read. I appreciated the POV of the two remaining characters, Karsten and Rotheram, and what they added to the story; but I felt that too much was trying to be achieved in too few words.”

• Rated 5 stars

“Excellent story; richly written; great characters”

• Rated 4 stars

“I've chosen this as the book discussion choice for my group for March. It's a first novel by a young author. Some of the reviews I've read talk about some of the flaws of the book, and although I agree with some of their points, I found the characters engaging and the writing very solid. I think it will be a very good book for a discussion.”

• Rated 4 stars

“This is a beautifully written book which explores the theme of Patriotism and traitors in the German soldiers, the Welsh, the English and the Jews (with no land) through the parrallel of Cynefin (sheep's inbred knowledge of where they belong). It also looks at the themes of surrender and cowardice. Esther surrenders to her English boyfriend, Karsten surrenders to the English army, after his escape Karsten surrenders to
Jim.

Very little actually happens in the book - everything is a psychological exploration. I think it will be a bit slow for many readers. But it's a book worth reading and one that gives you a lot to think about when you're done reading.

Amazon.com Review:
Following two widely praised short-story collections, Equal Love and The Ugliest House in the World, Peter Ho Davies's first novel, The Welsh Girl, deserves to be equally well received. It carefully examines two great themes, dislocation and cowardice, through the stories of a WWII POW camp built by the British in the remote mountains of northern Wales and Esther, the 17-year-old Welsh girl at the heart of the story. The POW camp, filled with Germans, is yet another national insult, as far as the Welsh are concerned, only one of many instances of prejudice between and among the novel's characters: Welshman against Brit and vice versa, Brits and Welshmen against Germans, Germans against Jews. Some of these enmities are age-old antagonisms; others are newly-minted political killing machines.

Davies introduces a Welsh concept--cynefin--for which there is no English equivalent. It means a certain knowledge and sense of place that is passed down the matrilineal line in a flock of sheep. They always know where they belong and never leave their own turf. It is a perfect metaphor for much of what takes place in this carefully plotted story, and for the displacement felt by many of the characters. Esther longs to escape her village, yet is devoted to the flock and to her father. She meets Colin, an English soldier, in the pub where she works. He is a rough sort and things end very badly between them.

Another theme visited again and again is the concept of cowardice. Is it cowardly to save one's life and the lives of others by surrendering to the enemy? Is death the price that must be paid to be considered brave? The German POWs debate this endlessly, especially Karsten, an intelligent, sensitive soldier who did surrender himself and his men when it was clear that all was lost. When he and Esther find one another under impossible circumstances, Davies renders their relationship perfectly: it is star-crossed, but desperately important to both of them, setting them both "free" in the truest sense of the word. The Welsh Girl is a beautifully told story of love, war, and the accommodations we make in the midst of both.”

• Rated 3 stars

“A interesting story of a lonely "Welsh Girl" and a German POW in World War Two. It took me a good number of pages to get into it but I eventually did and it was thought provoking. Bert”

• Rated 4 stars

“A lovely, well-written novel. Superb, believable characterisation and beautifully set. A promising new author, I shall look out for his books in future.”

• Rated 2 stars

“Didn't care much for this book. While the writing was lovely and sense of setting suberb, the plot lacked definition.”

• Rated 3 stars

“Disappointing. Somehow, it never joined up. But enjoyed the historical elements of Hess and the PoW.”

• Rated 2 stars

“Set in a Welsh village during WWII, this book covers very compelling subjects in a terribly predictable plot line.”

• Rated 4 stars

“What a great story, full of intrigue and conflict, the victim and her brute, the prisoners and their gang of juvenile tormenters, the sheep herders and the slate miners, the English versus the Welsh. The kind of book read in one or two sittings.”