#13: Letters From Skye by Jessica Brockmole

This book was on display at my university library. I picked it up out of curiosity, and immediately found myself immersed in the world of David, Elspeth and those around them. There are two main time periods in the book: just before and during World War One, and smack in the middle of World War Two. David and Elspeth, who meet through a series of letters, are shown at alternate stages in their relationship. These fragments, in turn, are pieced with the story of Margaret, Elspeth's daughter, who begins to uncover the story of her mother's great love when she is grown up and nearly ready to have a family of her own.

The main difficulty David and Elspeth face is the distance that separates. This distance changes from time to time as the two characters move from place to place, and peril ensues when David goes off to war after losing his job as a teacher, hoping to make something greater of his life. Elspeth, on the other hand, mostly remains on the Isle of Skye, writing books of poetry, until the strength of David's love changes both of their lives forever.

There are very difficult and sad parts in this book, but Jessica Brockmole writes with such grace and clarity that they seem beautiful. Whether you've had problems with distance in relationships or not, you can still greatly enjoy the story and empathize with its characters, who Brockmole has fleshed out carefully and cleverly. She has done the same for the story in itself, allowing us to envision the various landscapes and situations of the novel so starkly, you feel as though you were reading the book at Place Three in France, or at Elspeth's cottage in Skye.

Overall, Letters from Skye was both surprising and pleasing. I highly recommend it and would definitely read it again.

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Letters From Skye Review by Courtney Justus is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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