Q: You’ve written a number of nonfiction books and articles, some of which stem from your experience as a social worker. How much has your career in social work influenced your fiction, and in what ways? Beyond giving you story ideas or characters, how has your profession shaped your writing?
In my very first job as a social worker, I interviewed people admitted to hospital after attempting suicide. It was an extraordinary education in human psychology. As a social worker, you learn how people behave in extreme situations, under extreme pressure—how strong we are, and just how heroic we can be. You meet so many people who live lives of quiet heroism against terrible odds. But you also see a lot of cruelty, expecially the cruelty of parents to children and men to women. So in a way, you see both the best and the worst of people, and all that knowledge certainly shapes my writing.
In this kind of work, you also hear a lot of stories. Every time you take a case history, you’re listening to a story. Though of course I’d never use anything told in confidence in my writing, the experience of listening to all those life histories does influence the way I write, especially when I’m creating backstory for my characters. And backstory is so important: for me, writing a rich, complex backstory is the key to creating a rich, complex character.
At one time I specialized in therapy with couples, and the things you learn doing that kind of work are gold dust if you’re writing a love story. You learn how the rules of a relationship are laid down very early on, and how things can get difficult if the rules have to be changed: as in The River House, where I looked at what might happen to a marriage that’s based on the shared project of child-rearing when the children leave home. And you learn how the ghosts of the past are always there in our relationships: so, in The Soldier’s Wife, Vivienne, who lost her mother so young, marries Eugene because he gives her the sense of safety that she’s never had—but maybe that’s not such a good basis for a marriage, because there’s something in her that remains unexpressed. And doing this kind of work, you’re always aware how important trust is in our relationships. It’s a theme I keep coming back to. My first novel was called Trust; and this theme is there in The Soldier’s Wife as well, as Vivienne urgently questions whether she can trust the man she loves.
Q: What are you working on currently? Are any more of your books due to be made into films? What will we see from you next in bookstores?
I’m writing a novel about a young English woman who goes to study the piano at the Academy of Music and the Performing Arts in Vienna in 1937. At the time, Vienna was perhaps Europe’s most glamorous city, and the setting and time are fascinating to explore—a seductive mix of music, Freud, exquisite coffeehouses, and underground SS cells; and then all the horror of the Anschluss, when Hitler annexed Austria.
It was thrilling to have my first novel, Trust, made into television in the UK, and I’d love to see another of my books on the screen. Recently, I’ve been approached by an independent film director who’s eager to make a film of Yes, My Darling Daughter. Of course, these are very difficult times for the film industry. But I’m hoping!
Reading Group Guide
INTRODUCTION
The de la Mare household, filled entirely with women, is not unlike many households on the tiny British island of Guernsey during World War II, where most men have left to join the army in its fight against the encroaching German forces. Vivienne feels little difference, however, in her husband Eugene’s absence from the life they lived when he resided at home as she raises their two daughters and cares for her ailing mother-in-law. He may have slept in the same bed, but the distance between them, then, was just as great.
Her life does change, though, when the Germans bomb their island and then occupy it, building work camps for prisoners of war and taking up residence in the homes abandoned by Guernsey citizens who fled. The house next door to Vivienne’s becomes one such German residence, and when several soldiers of the German army begin living there, including one tall, intriguing man with a long pink scar on his face, Vivienne is forced to negotiate a new life fraught with new rules, new faces, and a dangerous but fulfilling new love.
An intricate historical novel that moves deftly between mystery and romance, The Soldier’s Wife depicts domestic and military life—and the horrors of war—with poetic, evocative prose. Margaret Leroy’s book about a woman whose unassuming life is irrevocably changed by war is a meditation on bravery, compassion, and the resilience of human nature.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. The book opens with Vivienne reading fairy tales to her younger daughter, Millie. Discuss the ways in which The Soldier’s Wife is like a fairy tale, as well as the important ways in which it is not. Discuss, too, the running motif of fairy tales throughout the book, including what Vivienne reads to Millie out of Angie’s book of Guernsey stories. Is Leroy using the fairy tales as symbols, or metaphors, or as a way of constructing a thematic statement for the book? (Or, perhaps, all three?)
2. Consider the ways the setting of The Soldier’s Wife is used as a literary device. Discuss scenes where the landscape foreshadows events or parallels the moods of the characters (in particular, Vivienne).
3. How effectively do you think Leroy portrayed life on the island of Guernsey during its occupation by the Germans in World War II? In particular, discuss the extent to which she depicted the bombing of the harbor, the gradual decline into poverty and resourcefulness of the island’s inhabitants, and the strained and complex relationships between the German soldiers and the British citizens.
4. Because most of the British men from Guernsey were enlisted as soldiers in the war, a majority of the characters in this book are women. Discuss the ways in which the author writes about women during wartime, focusing in particular on Angie, Gwen, Blanche, Vivienne, and Evelyn.
5. Similarly, consider—by way of the book’s characters—how the different generations were affected by the war: Millie and Simon’s innocent youth, Blanche and Johnnie’s emerging adulthood, Vivienne and Gunther’s duty-torn middle age, and Evelyn’s advanced (and afflicted) years. In what ways did each generation suffer because of the war, and in what ways were they changed, perhaps, for the better?
6. Comment on Vivienne’s honest appraisal of her marriage early in the novel, before her relationship with Gunther begins. What does it say about her that she never confronted Eugene about his mistress? Do you think that she would have returned to her marriage after the war with the same practical resignation?
7. Some of the less developed characters in the novel are interesting nonetheless. Discuss the roles Gwen, Angie, Max, and Johnnie play in the book and in Vivienne’s life. How does each character teach her something, or reveal something, about which she would otherwise remain in the dark? How do her relationships with these characters change, and change her, over the course of the story?
8. Discuss Kirill and his role in the novel, too. When Millie began speaking about the “white ghost” in the barn, did you suspect she was talking about a man from the work camp? What did you think had happened to him the first time he disappeared? In what ways was he responsible for a change in Vivienne, particularly as a character in opposition to Gunther, a man who was also responsible for significant change in Vivienne?
9. When Vivienne broke off her relationship with Gunther, what did you believe? Did you believe that Gunther had reported Vivienne for housing Kirill? What did you think of Max’s revelation to Vivienne that Hermann had died, and then, at the end of the book, that Gunther had not been responsible for Kirill’s death? Do you think Vivienne blamed Gunther for Kirill’s death before this, or did it matter to her? How much did Vivienne hold Gunther responsible for his actions as a German soldier?
10. Gunther and Vivienne were both marked by the death of a parent—Vivienne, her mother, and Gunther, his father. What other similarities, particularly of character, did they share? What made them such an ideal match? Had the war ended while Gunther was still on Guernsey, what might have happened to th
em? Would their fairy tale have had a happy ending?
11. In what ways is Vivienne a memorable heroine? What character trait did you find most interesting about her? What made you like her (or, possibly, dislike her) in particular?
12. Compare this book to other works of historical fiction that you have read. What are its biggest strengths? What makes it different from other historical novels? Did it change, in any way, your perspective of life in Europe during World War II? What can be learned from these characters and their particular situation that can be useful in contemporary society, even in the United States?
About the Author
MARGARET LEROY studied music at Oxford and has worked as a music therapist and social worker. She has written five previous novels. Her first novel, Trust, was televised in the UK. Postcards from Berlin was a New York Times Notable Book, and Yes, My Darling Daughter was chosen for the Oprah Summer Reading List. Her books have been published in ten languages. She is married with two children and lives in London.
www.MargaretLeroy.com
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 Margaret Leroy
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information address Hyperion, 114 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10011.
The Library of Congress has catalogued the original print edition of this book as follows:
Leroy, Margaret.
The soldier's wife : a novel / Margaret Leroy. - 1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-4013-4170-1
1. Married women-Channel Islands-Guernsey-Fiction. 2. World War, 1939-1945-Channel Islands-Guernsey-Fiction. 3. Germans-Channel Islands-Guernsey-Fiction. 4. Channel Islands-History-German occupation, 1940-1945-Fiction. 5. Guernsey (Channel Islands)-Fiction. I. Title.
PR6112.E765S65 2011
823'.92-dc22
2010047508
eBook Edition ISBN: 978-1-4013-4272-2
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Illustrated map by Laura Hartman Maestro
Design for title page and part openers by Cassandra J. Pappas
Cover design by Laura Klynstra
Cover photograph of woman by Susan Fox / Arcangel Images
Cover photograph of Guernsey by Islandspics / Alamy
Author photograph by Nikki Gibbs
First eBook Edition
Original paperback edition printed in the United States of America.
www.HyperionBooks.com
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