The Welsh Girl

This was a beautifully written book. I enjoyed the three main characters and the way the author had them eventually intersect with one another. I empathized with each of them. The secondary characters were also well-defined and interesting. It's always a treat when you read a book you can learn something from. I never knew how the term "welcher" came about until I read this book. I look forward to more from this author.

This gem of a novel is not designed for those who prefer action books with linear plots; it's as real as life itself. From the start, I believed in these characters -- Esther, the Welsh girl...Karstan, the German POW...Jim, the young English boy. The Welsh Girl can be read in so many different ways: as a story of connections that span boundaries and defy expectations. Or it can be read as a novel of identity. Peter Ho Davies write: "We have something in common, you and I. The same dilemma. Are we who we think we are, or who others judge us to be? A question of will, perhaps." By the end of the novel, each character will wrestle with this question. The POW will learn the true meaning of "to surrender." The young English boy will find out what "courage" is all about. And the Welsh girl, at the center, will discover about cynefin -- a Welsh quality that has no English translation, but loosely translates to the flock knowing its place. And each will define himself or herself further by comparison with a presumed dead Welsh soldier, whose identity seems to be in the eye of the beholder. I was enchanted by this novel, the first by the author of Equal Love, a fine short story collection. I'd recommend it wholeheartedly for true readers who are fascinated with love, family, loyalty, and national identity.

One of the greatest accomplishments of this novel is the way it beautifully and convincingly--and with the compassion others have mentioned here--evokes and channels the female experience, granting it true complexity. This isn't something we've seen in the historical fiction of the men of previous generations, and is just a part of the great feat of imagination that makes this novel such a success.

The Welsh Girl is a novel set in Wales during the last days of WWII. Its themes concern the meaning of nationality and the concept of betrayal. Let me say it is a lovely, thought provoking book about memorable characters with whom it is easy to empathizise; of recently read novels, it comes closest to Cold Mountain (Frazier) in its reflection on war and how war effects ordinary men and women. However, it is not nearly as graphically violent. The Welsh Girl is a quiet novel inviting the reader to reflect on the meaning of national identity and the concept of betrayal. Toward the end of WWII, the British build a POW camp in a small Welsh village. The Welsh feel insulted by this, as they do by the very presence of the English. After all, it is the English who have attempted to deny the Welsh both their language and their culture. In fact, throughout the novel, the Welsh struggle with who to view as the greater enemy - the British or the Germans. Esther is a young woman caught in the tangled loyalties of the time. Wooed by native Welsh boys of her community, she finds them too limiting; attracted to the more worldly English soldiers, she finds herself betrayed; falling in love with the German POW, she is at a loss on how to reconcile this with the reality of life after the war. Author Davies also explores the relationship of young men to family and cultural expectations during war. Karsten, the young German POW, struggles with his surrender to the British forces. Was this a betrayal of his loyalty not only to his country but to his family's view of what a soldier should be? His father was a submarine soldier killed during WWI. What was the truth behind his father's views on war? How will his mother react to Karsten's surrender? Is it better to die for the cause? Most complex are the issues of nationality and loyalty to Rotheram. Rotheram's father, also killed during WWI, was Jewish. His mother was German Lutheran. Rotheram, who never knew his father, thought of himself as German Lutheran. At the beginning of the war, the power of the Nazi party held a strong attraction to him as it did for many young people. Rotheram felt himself betrayed on many levels - and yet ultimately felt the most free at the end of the war for the very reason that he was no longer tied to any nationality. He had been equally scorned by all. He no longer had a Fatherland or a Mother tongue.* What role does language play in our cultural identity? Can we tell by looking at someone what their national identity is? (Karsten agonizes over the fact that Jewish people are supposed to be the "other" according to Nazi policy and to his mother's beliefs and yet he cannot "see" the difference; Rotheram assumes the Welsh bartender refuses serving him because he is Jewish, but in fact it is because the bartender "sees" him as English). The author does justice to even the most minor characters - each add a significant voice to the themes of the novel. At some po

--or so ran the blurb inside the jacket referencing Davies' "all encompassing empathy." I will say that I don't think either phrase is copy editor hyperbole. While I admired the sympathetic voice the male author gave the title character, I was particularly impressed with how he handled the German characters: Rotheram, Karsten, and even Rudolf Hess. They were fully fleshed-out and fully human, and as much as I enjoyed the chapters that focused on Esther's storyline (once I recovered from my initial disgruntlement that the novel is written in the present tense), I found myself looking forward to getting back to the interogator and the POW. The biggest selling point for me wasn't the plot, which has been summarized well in the official reviews, although I found seeing WWII from a Welsh perspective quite interesting. What I found most enchanting about the novel was the symbolism, and I hope that doesn't scare anyone away, because Davies doesn't drop anvils on you, he just slides things in matter-of-factly. Initial concepts like freedom, capture, surrender, prisoner, enemy, ewe, lamb, and even the verb "welsh" are introduced in their literal sense, but by the end of the novel, you can see how Davies has added and woven layers of meaning and interpretation over time and through different character perspectives. "Cynefin", a sheep's sense of place or belonging, is something Esther tries to escape in the beginning, but is a source of comfort by the end. Rotheram, who struggles with both his personal identity and how others view him, ultimately is liberated by giving up his initial sense of home, and Karsten in the end is pulled back to his place on the mountain. "The Welsh Girl" isn't action packed, but it is a well-written, insightful "quiet gem".