Everyone Brave is Forgiven

Book 9 of my 2019 Reading Challenge

read from January 18 - 22

Everyone Brave is Forgiven

by Chris Cleave

Summary (via the book jacket)

published 2016

London, 1939.

The day war is declared, Mary North leaves finishing school unfinished, goes straight to the War Office and signs up.

Tom Shaw decides to ignore the war - until he learns his roommate Alistair Heath has unexpectedly enlisted. Then the conflict can no longer be avoided.

Young, bright, and brave, Mary is certain she'd be a marvelous spy. When she is - bewilderingly - made a teacher, she finds herself defying prejudice to protect the children her country would rather forget.

Tom, meanwhile, finds that he will do anything for Mary.

And when Mary and Alistair meet, it is love, as well as war, that will test them in ways they could not have imagined, entangling three lives in violence and passion, friendship and deception, inexorably shaping their hopes and dreams.

Set in London during the years of 1939-1942, when citizens had slim hope of survival, much less victory; and on the strategic island of Malta, which was daily devastated by the Axis barrage, Everyone Brave is Forgiven features little-known history and a perfect wartime love story inspired by the real-life love letters between Chris Cleave's grandparents. This dazzling novel dares us to understand that, against the great theater of world events, it is the intimate losses, the small battles, the daily human triumphs that change us most.

My Opinion

4 stars

I really wavered between rounding down to 3 or up to 4 stars but ended up rounding up to 4 stars because of the witty dialogue and banter, especially between Alistair and Simonson.

I didn't love the language.  I found the number of times the 'n' word was used jarring.  I understand the prejudice of the time was a very important plot point but when it was happening multiple times per page and in situations where it wasn't needed to convey the sentiments, it was distracting and took me out of the story.  I also didn't like the number of times "retarded" was used.  Again, I understand the language was different in that time but it was being used as a substitute for "stupid" (as opposed to a descriptor of someone that would've been appropriate at the time but outdated now) so often that it felt unnecessary.  In both cases it felt like overkill and heavy-handed - the points would've landed with even half of the number of times those words were used.

I liked the author's note at the end that the pictures on the inside front and back covers of the hardcover edition (which I read) are of actual letters the author's grandfather sent to his grandmother.  That was a really nice touch.