Product Description

In 1944, a German Jewish refugee is sent to Wales to interview Rudolf Hess; in Snowdonia, a seventeen-year-old girl, the daughter of a fiercely nationalistic shepherd, dreams of the bright lights of an English city; and in a nearby POW camp, a German soldier struggles to reconcile his surrender with his sense of honour. As their lives intersect, all three will come to question where they belong and where their loyalties lie.

Peter Ho Daviess thought-provoking and profoundly moving first novel traces a perilous wartime romance as it explores the bonds of love and duty that hold us to family, country, and ultimately our fellow man. Vividly rooted in history and landscape, THE WELSH GIRL reminds us anew of the pervasive presence of the past, and the startling intimacy of the foreign.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6528 in Books
• Published on: 2007-12-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Review
'A beautifully crafted, lyrical novel' -- Maggie O'Farrell, Observer Books of the Year 'Moving, memorable and beautifully written' -- Jessica Mann, Sunday Telegraph 'Deeply felt and vividly imagined' -- Lionel Shriver, Daily Telegraph 'Fresh and engaging!Some sentences and passages are crafted so beautifully and seemingly effortlessly that it provokes envy.' -- David Cornett, Sunday Express 'Quietly powerful! a fine piece of work -- Stephen Knight, Times Literary Supplement 'His prose and the evocation of time and place are almost always of the highest order!he approaches the Second World War with a fresh and contemporary style, a gift that he shares with Kazuo Ishiguro' -- Russell Celyn Jones, The Times 'A scintillating instance of fictional imagination applied to history' -- Richard Eder, New York Times 'Impressive!a compelling story in itself, but Davies's special skill lies in integrating conflicts that drive the narrative at a more intense level' -- Richard Gwyn, Independent 'deft and graceful' -- Good Book Guide 20080401

An unlikely World War II romance is the subject of this ambitious first novel from the Welsh-Malaysian author of the story collections The Ugliest House in the World (1997) and Unequal Love (2000).Following a prologue, in which British army officer Rotheram (son of a German Jewish war-hero-turned-pacifist) is assigned to interrogate captured Nazi officer Rudolf Hess, the scene shifts to a farming village in mountainous northern Wales. Davies gradually connects the shadow of the war to the experiences of teenaged barmaid Esther Evans, whose sheepherder father loudly proclaims his countrymen's ingrained distrust of all things English (including the war effort). Another narrative pattern emerges in the ordeal of Karsten Simmering, imprisoned in the POW camp the English army has built not far from the Evans farm, and guilt-ridden over his decision to persuade the soldiers under his command to surrender. Karsten's agonies of conscience are juxtaposed with the progress of Esther's maturing (she's raped by her boyfriend, a soldier in the British army, and shares the sufferings of the family who have lost their son Rhys-the decent man Esther might have married). The plots coalesce as Karsten escapes, hides in the Evans's barn and draws closer to Esther-with consequences that will compromise his "freedom" and alter her future. The story comes full circle as the completion of Rotheram's mission ironically confirms the likelihood that he, like so many others maimed and transformed by the war, belongs nowhere, and has no identity. The book is overlong and explains too much, but succeeds admirably in its presentation of engaging major characters, each of whom is given a complex and intriguing personal and family history. The result is a rich, moving explication of the ambiguities of duty and sacrifice, courage and perseverance.Not quite The English Patient, but a credible dramatization of a quality too seldom encountered in contemporary fiction: nobility. (Kirkus Reviews)

Review

'A beautifully crafted, lyrical novel'

(Maggie O'Farrell, Observer Books of the Year )

'Moving, memorable and beautifully written'

(Jessica Mann, Sunday Telegraph )

'Deeply felt and vividly imagined'

(Lionel Shriver, Daily Telegraph )

'Fresh and engaging…Some sentences and passages are crafted so beautifully and seemingly effortlessly that it provokes envy.'

(David Cornett, Sunday Express )

'Quietly powerful… a fine piece of work

(Stephen Knight, Times Literary Supplement )

'His prose and the evocation of time and place are almost always of the highest order…he approaches the Second World War with a fresh and contemporary style, a gift that he shares with Kazuo Ishiguro'

(Russell Celyn Jones, The Times )

'A scintillating instance of fictional imagination applied to history'

(Richard Eder, New York Times )

'Impressive…a compelling story in itself, but Davies’s special skill lies in integrating conflicts that drive the narrative at a more intense level'

(Richard Gwyn, Independent )

'deft and graceful' (Good Book Guide )

Sunday Telegraph
'A moving, memorable and beautifully written book about displacement and its opposite...a gripping human story'

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Customer Reviews

Disappointing...
I wanted to like this book, but the truth is, it just bored me. I couldn't see the point of it. It didn't seem to be about anything. I know some people might say I've missed the point of it or it's about a place and a moment in time, but I just look at all the praise it's garnered and wonder if they're talking about a different book. It's very well-written but it's just too sterile, too clinical. I never really felt anything about any of the characters and some of them I couldn't see the point of at all, most particularly the storyline involving Rotherham and Hess. It just didn't seem to do anything for the book and the link to Esther and Karsten's story was tenuous in the extreme.

One of those all-nighter reads.
One of those gems, heard about it through the Richard and Judy bookclub, something I tried to steer clear of initially! The book deals with a Welsh village "invaded" by English soldiers and then prisoners of war. Themes include trying to keep a national identity and the sense of a village when English culture and the war are coming in by stealth. Confusion about who is the enemy, the English or the Germans. Another theme is about identity, how you see yourself and how others see you. There are 2 storylines going through the book, the first is about a girl living in the village and the second about a Jewish interpreter.

Patriotism and Identity
Be prepared for a slow read and you won't be disappointed. The prose is, at times, quite beautiful and Peter Ho Davies has a style all of his own. Through the novel he questions ideas regarding the way in which we view our loyalties and courage, as well as our identities. It also highlights the fact that war is a very masculine thing, during which the real nature of female nurturing comes to the forefront. The author is sometimes almost poetic when describing unremarkable actions; this is one passage I particularly liked : 'He starts to write. In the swaying candlelight the lines on the paper look like strips of bandages, and he has the strangest impression of his writing hand, unwinding them as it moves across the page, revealing the words beneath.' An unusual description, but so easily imagined. I enjoyed this novel, not just for the thoughts it provoked, but for its beautiful use of the English language (even though it's set in North Wales!).