Sarah Blake

Letters of love, telegrams of loss - the postmistress awaits them all The wireless crackles with news of blitzed-out London and of the war that courses through Europe, leaving destruction in its wake. Listening intently on the other side of the Atlantic, newly-wed Emma considers the fragility of her peaceful married life as America edges closer to the brink of war. As the reporter's distant voice fills the room, she sits convincing herself that the sleepy town of Franklin must be far beyond the war's reach. But the life of American journalist Frankie, whose voice seems so remote, will soon be deeply entangled with her own. With the delivery of a letter into the hands of postmistress Iris, the fates of these three women become irrevocably linked. But while it remains unopened, can Iris keep its truth at bay?

The Postmistress

The stories of a small Cape Cod postmistress and an American radio reporter stationed in London collide on the eve of the United States' entrance into World War II, a meeting that is shaped by a broken promise to deliver a letter. Reprint. A best-selling novel.

Sarah Sammis

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake is a World War Two novel set in both Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and London, England. The book opens with Postmistress Iris James pocketing a letter. The rest of the book is the dramatization of what that letter contains and the aftermath of Iris not delivering it.

Although Iris is the titular character, her position in the novel is mostly that of bookends. The main protagonist is actually reporter Frankie Bard, a woman sent throughout Europe to report on the war. She is working for Edward R. Murrow. But there so many stories of brave men and women doing things on the front line and so few stories of the people left stateside that I was hoping to hear more of Iris.

It takes half of the book for the narrative to sort itself and find its rhythm. Besides Iris and Frankie, there is also a doctor. For the longest time I couldn't place where he fit into the story. While Frankie is traveling by train throughout Europe, the crux of the story isn't her journey, it's the fate of that doctor. The Postmistress should made that fact clearer through tighter editing in the first half.

Once the letter has been played out as an extended flashback with multiple points of view, the novel settles into the final act — the aftermath of the letter not being delivered.

Frankie, as an eyewitness, feels compelled to deliver a handwritten note, thus undoing the subterfuge of Iris. Her journey to Cape Cod both as a bearer of news as well as a radio celebrity and war hero creates a palpable tension. This section of the novel is how the whole thing should have been like.

The Postmistress

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