Description
It is 1939. Lavender--La to her friends--decides to flee London, not only to avoid German bombs but also to escape the memories of her shattered marriage. Settling in as small town, she organizes an amateur orchestra from the village and the local RAF base and falls in love with one of her prized recruits.
Local notes
A gentle war time story set in English countryside where La, newly divorced then widowed finds solace in her community and establishes an orchestra. Central to the plot is her growing affection for Feliks, the Polish airman working on a nearby farm. Suspicion keeps them apart as Henry Madder the farmer accuses the Pole of theft. Resolution is provided by the first chapter which is set many years later when 2 men visit the cottage where they had grown up as young boys. One realises that these were Feliks' boys.
Publication
Abacus (2009), Paperback, 256 pages
Media reviews
". . . McCall Smith tells a deceptively quiet story about what might on the surface seem a life of disappointment. . . [yet] La, with or without her slightly out-of-tune orchestra, saves her circumscribed world with little fanfare, one human gesture at a time."
Original publication date
2008-11-01
Physical description
256 p.; 7.56 inches
ISBN
0349122059 / 9780349122052