Charlotte Gray

This is a book full of insight into the way civilisation can slip into barbarism. Its haunting themes of memory and passion stay with you long after you have finished reading. --Lisa Jardine

Reader Reviews:

Best book about WWII I have read (1/1 people found this helpful)

This is a terrific book - difficult to put down and a real literary achievement. It is fundamentally a romance set against a backdrop of war but is much more than that in reality.
Not an easy read in terms of its subject matter as it deals with the worst aspects of Nazi atrocities as well as the bravery, clever scheming and misguided realpolitick of the Allies.
Those in France involved with resisting the Reich are not forgotten, as are those who embraced the regime brought by their occupiers.
I cannot think of anything negative to say about it. It doesn't pull any punches in describing the ludicrous propaganda used by the Vichy government and rightly so.

The book is about love and how it drives people as much as "the horror the horror".

As good as Birdsong, maybe better.

Still haunts me on the second reading (0/0 people found this helpful)

I read first read this book in my late teens and it haunted me then and brought with it a greater appreciation for literature that has stayed with me ever since. I decided to re-read Charlotte Gray now in my mid twenties and wasn't sure about how I would feel upon re-reading it.
Happily, I was swept away again. Charlotte is a very likeable character and Faulks manages to evoke romance and passion without any sense of sentimentality. I loved the characters of Levade and Julien and felt that they bring an extra depth to the story, enabling us to see Charlotte's strengths and passions.
It is a book that may teach you more about history and breaks down the barriers of time. Often books are either about war, or about love but this one manages to combine both without overshadowing the plot.
I feel Faulks is a beautifully haunting and transporting writer and this book will remain in my list of favourites forever.

A moving book set in wartime France (1/1 people found this helpful)

Charlotte is a British spy sent into France in 1942, trained by the government to liaise with the resistance and pass messages. Secretly she is hoping to make contact with her lover, who has gone missing during a routine flight to France. She uses the resistance to try to establish his location and make contact.
This love story is contrasted with the backdrop of war - the brutal treatment of Jews by the Vichy government and many of the French characters. The destruction of property and human life is captured in text that fully portrays the grim reality. Focussing on two Jewish children brings home the awful consequences of genocide, and regularly brought tears to my eyes. The descriptions were so real that I could see my own children following those footsteps.
Maybe my slight criticism is that Charlotte's story and the Jewish stories don't seem to stick together. There is too much comment on French wartime behaviour for the novel to completely gel. But still a fine and moving read.

A moving journey (1/1 people found this helpful)

Having recently read and admired 'Birdsong' by Sebastian Faulks, I was keen to read Charlotte Gray. I loved it.
What a fascinating, at times terrifying journey she undertakes! We follow her journey from Scotland as she heads south to London to do her bit for the war effort, meeting various people who each alter the course of her life, and one of whom she falls in love with, and it becomes her destiny to follow him to France. But on arriving in France and uncovering the truth of the situation there for some of the people, her mission takes on a much broader purpose as she seeks to mend or at least temporarily 'patch-up' the heartaches in the lives of some of those she encounters.

It is beautifully written, with wonderful characters like the old man Charlotte looks after for a time in France, Levade, and his son Julien who is bravely battling in one of the Resistance movements, and with whom Charlotte finds a true and enduring friendship unlike anything in her past. Through the novel we learn of the events over in France during these 'dark' times, and to discover more about the ways of their then leaders and their complicity with the Germans in rounding up Jews is startling. It is extremely moving and disquieting to read the passages about first Levade, and then the children, as they meet their horrific and appalling fates. Faulkes is a masterly storyteller, and succeeds here in crafting an enthralling, moving novel which I could not put down for long, and which I would like to read again one day.

Never Forget! (1/1 people found this helpful)

This, again, was a second reading and well worth it. Had I not read it directly after revisiting 'Birdsong', I would probably have rated it 5 stars. Birdsong, however, is one of the best novels I've ever read, and although CG is very good, it does pale a little by comparison. Charlotte Gray is the daughter of Colonel Gray, Stephen Wraysford's superior officer in Birdsong and this is the main connection between the two novels. Other reviewers here have already given very worthy comment on this novel, but I would like to add that the overwhelming feeling it left me with was that we must never forget what man did to fellow man - the fact that human beings are capable of such evil. I would thoroughly recommend this book - it's a harrowing, but gripping tale of wartime France and serves as a very real reminder.

Sebastian Faulks

Editorial Review: