The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies

As a WWII buff, I am always intrigued by new books on the subject, which is what prompted me to pick up The Welsh Girl in the first place. This is the story of a POW camp in Wales and how the life of one of the German prisoners, Karsten, interweaves with one of the local girls, Esther. The POW camp is built by the British near D-Day and the camp is an affront to the Welsh community, after all, it is the British who have denied the Welsh people their language and culture. And the entire town struggles with this conundrum; who is their enemy, the British or the Germans? And is the enemy of my enemy my friend? Esther yearns for more in life than her small town in Wales and rejects the young men of her community. She takes up with a member of the British army only to have things end badly. When the POW’s arrive, Esther strikes up an unusual relationship with Karsten, one of the only prisoners who can speak English. There’s also a subplot to this novel, the story of Rotheram, an interrogator in the British armed forces who grew up in Germany but was forced to emigrate during the Nazi party’s rise to power, since his father was Jewish. I wasn’t really thrilled with this sub story – I felt it was just filler to make the book a little longer. The main story, though, was kind of charming. It is a short novel so it was a quick read, and I enjoyed the characters. It’s not a must read, by any means, but not a bad way to spend an afternoon.