APRIL 2017 - AudioFile
This charming debut introduces the villagers of Chilbury, England, who defy tradition—and the vicar—as they keep calm and carry on during WWII. Specifically, they resurrect the church’s choir in spite of the absence of male voices. The journal and letter format of the story poses a challenge to transform into audio, and this superb cast fully succeeds in keeping listeners engaged with voices that embody the personalities of all the characters, especially the five choir members. The timid widow who finds her voice, the boy-crazy daughter of the local gentry, the precocious sister, the young Jewish refugee, and, for comic relief, the scheming midwife hoping to outrun her shady past all show, in their own unique ways, the resilience on the home front. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
12/05/2016
In 1940, at a time when women’s roles were still firmly rooted in home and hearth, the ladies of Chilbury, England, find themselves at the bleeding edge of progress as the ramifications of World War II begin to infiltrate their little town. The men of Chilbury head to battlefields, and the village choir becomes the first casualty of the war. When a female professor of music insists the choir can be reassembled as a ladies’ choir, the small community is at first scandalized by such an idea. But this is soon lost to other more salacious events. There is the brigadier who hires an unscrupulous midwife to swap his baby girl for a boy, and his teenage daughter seduces a handsome artist who’s come to town under mysterious circumstances. An upstanding single woman (a widow whose only son has gone to fight) is tapped to take a colonel into her home, and a 10-year-old Czech evacuee finds out what happened to her family. As the war advances on Chilbury, even more lives are changed when a German bomb kills a young mother as well as the choir mistress, young men are sent off to war, and spies and black market profiteers lurk in the quiet lanes. Told in the form of diaries and letters in the voices of the female characters, Ryan’s novel, reminiscent of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, captures the experience of the war from a woman’s perspective. Readers may have come across this kind of story before, but the letter/diary format works well and the plot elements satisfyingly come together. (Feb.)
From the Publisher
There's so much happening in Chilbury: intrigue, romance and an unforgettable cast of characters who aren’t always as they appear. The Chilbury Ladies' Choir is a charming slice of English wartime life that warms the soul like a hot toddy."
— Martha Hall Kelly, New York Times bestselling author of Lilac Girls
"Lyrical, poetic, emotional, funny, endearing, surprising – it is a masterpiece."
— Veronica Henry, author of An Eligible Bachelor
“The Chilbury Ladies' Choir sinks you deep inside the rich, intricate atmosphere of an English village in the middle of war, when quiet lives are upended and secrets unravel. With her unforgettable characters and vivid narrative, Jennifer Ryan creates the kind of wartime novel that plays out over the intimate territory of the human heart—full of soul, full of hope. You’ll be thinking about this book long after the last page turns.”
— Beatriz Williams, New York Times bestselling author of A Hundred Summers and The Secret Life of Violet Grant
“World War II in an English village seen through the eyes of the most delicious cast of characters you’ll ever meet—The Chilbury Ladies' Choir is a masterpiece of secrets, misdirection, village gossip, and gleeful disregard for anything but the main chance, as the Home Front learns to carry on. Seldom do you find a writer with such a deft touch—Jennifer Ryan sweeps the reader along to the very last page in a remarkable debut. “
— Charles Todd, New York Times bestselling author of the Inspector Ian Rutledge series
From the Hardcover edition.
APRIL 2017 - AudioFile
This charming debut introduces the villagers of Chilbury, England, who defy tradition—and the vicar—as they keep calm and carry on during WWII. Specifically, they resurrect the church’s choir in spite of the absence of male voices. The journal and letter format of the story poses a challenge to transform into audio, and this superb cast fully succeeds in keeping listeners engaged with voices that embody the personalities of all the characters, especially the five choir members. The timid widow who finds her voice, the boy-crazy daughter of the local gentry, the precocious sister, the young Jewish refugee, and, for comic relief, the scheming midwife hoping to outrun her shady past all show, in their own unique ways, the resilience on the home front. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2016-11-22
While their men are off fighting the Nazis, the women in the English village of Chilbury struggle to carry on.Though the action spans only a few months in 1940, a lot happens: there are bombings, a nefarious baby-swapping scheme, passionate love affairs, acts of espionage and of great valor. The Chilbury women, it seems, are always being tested. What binds them together and lifts their spirits is their participation in the local church choir, transformed with the advent of war from a coed chorus to an all-female one. The story is told through the women's letters and journal entries, which can make for some clumsy exposition. Key figures include the sensible widow and nurse Mrs. Tilling, the scheming midwife Miss Paltry, Kitty Winthrop, a plucky, headstrong 13-year-old, and her older sister, Venetia, the town beauty and a heedless flirt until she falls hard for a secretive artist. All are borderline stock characters, and little that happens in the book is unexpected—though the brutality of Brig. Winthrop, Kitty and Venetia's father, does come as a bit of a shock. The author also tends to tell rather than show: asked if she thinks that singing will help the women get through the war, the choir director answers, "Music takes us out of ourselves, away from our worries and tragedies….All those cadences and beautiful chord changes, every one of them makes you feel a different splendor of life." Real tragedy visits the town, but it doesn't fully register. And subplots involving homosexuality and abortion seem designed to make a period piece feel more contemporary. Still, the book is well-paced, especially in the second half, and readers may find themselves furiously turning pages even if they can easily predict what's coming next. Mildly entertaining, Ryan's debut novel seems overfamiliar and too intent on warming the heart.
