I loved absolutely everything about The Underground Library by Jennifer Ryan (thank you Netgalley and Random House for the eARC). It’s out today, and I encourage all historical fiction readers and book lovers to get their hands on a copy of this five star read. I’m jealous of everyone who gets to read it for the first time. I’ll be purchasing a copy for my permanent shelves.
Based on a true WWII story, The Underground Library tells the story of three remarkable women: Juliet Lansdown, the new deputy librarian of Bethnal Green Library in London, Katie Upwood, a summer librarian preparing to attend university in the fall, and Sofie Baumann, a young Jewish refugee who escaped without her family from Berlin to London. Each woman has a trial to overcome and they must learn to overcome on their own and with their new friends. When bombs destroy the library, Juliet and her new friends relocate the stacks to the local Underground station. It becomes a life-line for all those sheltering at night and needing stories to soothe their souls.
For readers who love found family stories, you will fall in love with each character and who they connect with and what they overcome. The writing is magnificent – I felt transported back to WWII London and could easily imagine the library in the Underground. And the way Ryan writes about the power of books, stories and libraries was simply beautiful and made me so proud of my librarian past and of all librarians. I found the author’s note fascinating as well. Jennifer Ryan is definitely an auto-buy author for me. This is a hugging book for sure.
About the Book:
368 pages, Hardcover
Setting: London, England
Historical Fiction, WWII Stories
Ballantine Books
Purchase Links:
Books a Million | Politics & Prose
Indiebound | Hudson | Target
sarahcantstopreadingbooks.com 
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