The Postmistress

by Sarah Blake

I love stories surrounding the World War II era. As a time that demonstrated both the worst and best of humanity, it makes an excellent setting for story-telling. So when I saw The Postmistress by Sarah Blake, I was pulled to it as a magnet. Blake's novel follows three American women in the time period before the U.S. has entered the war. Iris is the postmistress in the small cape town of Franklin, who thrives on routine and order. Emma is the newcomer to the town who has finally found a home with her new husband (and the town doctor), Will Fitch. Finally, Frankie is a reporter scouring Western Europe for the truth. While telling their three separate stories, Blake also weaves them together with language that is beautiful, and at times heart breaking.

Blake often refers to the "edges" of a story. Her characters state that there are times when we only know the parts of the story that are told or experience, we do not always see the final outcome or the center of an issue. In the same way, Blake writes about WWII from the perspective of the "edges".  The reader is not following a soldier off to war, we are not with a family hiding their friends in the basement, or walking with those trying to escape from the country. Instead, we are with three women who cannot yet see the enormity of what is happening around the world. They see only the "edges" that they can experience in their own lives. Actually, Frankie tries to press through the edge to the center of the story, and becomes overwhelmed by the horror of what she experiences. Each of the heroines faces their own struggles with purpose and  truth: Iris hiding a potentially devastating letter, Emma facing life on her own after Will leaves to help as a doctor in the London blitz, and Frankie collecting the stories of those fleeing the areas ruled by the Nazis. They come together in the end, with their own sorrows and perspectives on faith and purpose. Although this is not a story with a "happily ever after", Blake tells it beautifully and manages to offer the reader a unique perspective on WWII.