Friday, July 12, 2024

The Night of the Flood by Zoë Somerville

This book is set in 1952 on a farm near the coast in Norfolk England. Verity Frost and her brother Peter live on the farm with their widowed father.  We start off with Verity meeting her friend Arthur on the anniversary of her mother's death.


 It is revealed Arthur was a child evacuee during the war, Verity's mother bringing him home to live with their family.  He grew up with them for several years but as an adult, he is no longer part of the family.  He is clearly in love with Verity but there are obstacles about religion and Verity's own hopes for her future.

She would like to attend Oxford and make a career and new life for herself.  Her father would like her to marry a local farmer and save their farm. Her brother Peter, expelled from a school for reasons of an improper relationship, wants to make something of the farm by modernizing the equipment and methods but the father won't hear of it.

The mother is rumored to have drowned by suicide and not accident so that comes up now and then.  And then there is the American pilot named Jack who befriends Peter.  Arthur suspects him of being a spy.  Those are the main characters and while the writing is at times stilted, you get a good picture of what is happening in Norfolk between these characters.

This is based on a true event about the flood that devasted Norfolk in 1953 with great license on the characters interactions.  This would appeal to someone who likes historical fiction but it isn't a fast read, slow going at times. 3 stars

Sharing with Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday.

8 comments:

  1. I like the general premise but it sounds a bit disjointed and with it being slow going I just don't have the patience for that right now. Too bad because I haven't come across anything about the flood.

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    1. Katherine, it was very slow going. Too bad as I was loojing forward to this one and the actual book and cover is gorgeous.

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  2. Floods interest me since I have always lived near large rivers and their tributaries. And the characters do sound interesting.

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    1. Joy, I remember you posting about living near rivers. The actual flood part was interesting.

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  3. English settings like these are usually good! I've been seeing other stories lately about parts of England flooding ... or was it a TV show? Does the story have any suspense about the flood? I recall Sarah Winman's novel Still Life has a real flood in it that hit Florence, Italy ... but that was 1966 apparently.

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    1. Susan, it moves so slowly I think you'd be better off looking up info about the flood in that area. I keep meaning to do that to real a historical account.

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  4. I really like true stories but not stories that go slow so I'll have to think about reading this book.

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    1. Vicki, if I had it to do again I would pass. It was part of my summer reading list and an aim to get books off the shelf that had been there for a while. The premise sounded great but yeah, it's slow moving.

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