A page-turning historical saga that will pull at your heartstrings! For fans of Freda Lightfoot, Pam Jenoff, Sebastian Faulks and Kate Atkinson.One woman’s secret war against the Nazis. One man’s war against himself… German, must decide where her loyalty lies.
Love for her island, and fear for her Jewish friend Rachel, soon propel her into a dangerous double life.
Meanwhile, Céline’s husband Fred is conscripted into the Wehrmacht in occupied France.
Horrified by Nazi acts of atrocity and torture, he soon becomes a double agent for the French Resistance.
But when things go wrong, and his Nazi masters discover his true allegiance, he finds he has the whole of the German Army on his tail.
How far will Céline go for her best friend? Will Fred make his way home to her?
Or will their lives be changed forever by the brutality of war?
THE OCCUPATION is a moving war & military saga following the separate stories of a young man and woman through the years of the Second World War as they fight to survive. more
An informative and heart-wrenching story of life during World War II on the Isle of Jersey and France. Well written and researched, I found it impossible to put down.
Review of The Occupation by Deborah Swift
I must say I was surprised initially and doubted the premise. I thought I’d have difficulty suspending my disbelief at the set-up of Fred having to leave Jersey under those circumstances to join the German Army. Would he have been conscripted at all? Would the Nazis really have gone after one man, a baker? Especially since the Wehrmacht had intentions of occupying Jersey? The novel led me to read about the occupation of the Channel Islands—this reader/writer was doing research on the book I was reading!
Fiction allows for a great deal, but when it’s historical and based on many true situations, the reader needs to be convinced that the scenes therein are based on real events, whether they are or aren’t. What kept me turning pages was the intricate balance and expertise that Swift exhibits in rounding out believable characters that have interior monologues and doubts as to their own actions. Fred is an exemplary tour de force in character-building.
As the story develops, the intensity grows to the point of becoming an incredible nail-biting, nerve-racking experience that kept me up at nights thinking—and if a novel can do that—it’s a winner in my humble experience.
This is not a “feel good” WWII story set in England, a lá “The Kitchen Front.”
Fred and Céline run a bakery on the English island of Jersey, off the SW coast of England. Fred is a German national, and receives papers conscripting him into the German army; he has no choice but to go join up in France. Céline is left to herself to run the bakery on fewer and fewer rations, as well as helping w/ the milking on a local farm. When the Germans eventually take over the island (no defense from England and no fighting for the island), things become much harder for the citizens who did not flee to England, especially the Jewish citizens like Céline’s friend, Rachel.
While Céline is dealing w/ shortages on Jersey, Fred suffers hazing in the German army. Because of his language skills, he is sent into France as a German spy. But Fred becomes fond of a cafe owner, Berenice, and slowly drawn into her world in the French Resistance. So now he’s a double agent, facing danger from the Germans and the French. He slowly gets drawn into the Resistance activities b/c of Berenice’s son Pierre (aka Antoine) and Fred’s very basic knowledge of chemistry. Obviously, Fred’s danger grows day by day, and he is eventually betrayed by a double-agent Resistance member and Fred and Berenice run for their lives.
Meanwhile, Fred’s über-Nazi brother, Horst, arrives on Jersey and makes life miserable for Céline. Her neighbors abandon her b/c they consider her a “jerrybag.” This is such a sad part of the book, b/c Céline wants nothing to do w/ Horst but has to tolerate him b/c he’s her brother-in-law, and then she has no choice b/c he’s a German officer running the local camp populated by German POW’s. As well, she has a massive secret she’s hiding from everyone, which becomes extremely complicated when Horst decides to move in w/ Céline – even into her bedroom. Yech. Of course, he’s violent.
How does this all end? Will England finally win the war in time to save Céline from dying at Horst’s hands or Fred dying at the hands of the Germans – or the French? As I said at the top, this isn’t a happy war story, so do be prepared. A solid four stars.
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Fantastic story. Read it in two days.
4.5*
I knew little about the occupation of the Channel Islands before I read this book, and it certainly opened my eyes; I had no idea the islanders suffered such hardship. Deborah Swift’s books are always meticulously researched without that research ever being apparent (such an art!), so I know that the novel is an accurate depiction of the time.
The story centres around Céline and Fred, who own a bakery on the island. Fred is German, and is conscripted into the German army. Both points of view are written in the first person, which was absolutely the right choice, and Céline’s story also involves her friend Rachel, who is Jewish. When I first started reading, I thought it was going to be one of those ‘cosy’ sort of wartime books (the type that have covers showing smiling landgirls and tick all 1940s nostalgia boxes) but I couldn’t have been more wrong; the picture of how mild and safe Jersey seems at first is there to provide the constrast with how precarious life becomes.
This novel is such an ‘easy read’; the writing flows so well and, considering it’s based on some events that actually took place, is unpredictable and certainly a page-turner. The overall message it puts across is how war changes everyone, and how quickly people can be led into prejudice about their fellow man—and I’m not just talking about the Nazis and the Jews. I applaud Ms Swift for not providing a neatly tied up, happy ending; the outcome for many of the characters made it a much more powerful story than it might have been had she gone for the safer option; I found that I became more and more engrossed as the story went on.
Reading this gave me new respect for all those who suffered under the Nazis. I enjoyed it, a lot. Definitely recommended.