“In 1940, Iris James is the postmistress in coastal Franklin, Massachusetts. Iris knows more about the townspeople than she will ever say—for example, that Emma Trask has come to marry the town’s doctor, and that Harry Vale watches the ocean for U-boats. Iris believes her job is to deliver secrets. Yet one day she does the unthinkable: slips a letter into her pocket, reads it, and doesn’t deliver it.

Meanwhile, Frankie Bard broadcasts from overseas with Edward R. Murrow. Her dispatches beg listeners to pay heed as the Nazis bomb London nightly. Most of the townspeople of Franklin think the war can’t touch them. But Iris and Emma and Frankie know better.

The Postmistress is a tale of two worlds—one shattered by violence, the other willfully naive—and of two women whose jobs are to deliver the news, yet who find themselves unable to do so. Through their eyes, and the eyes of everyday people caught in history’s tide, it examines how well we tell each other stories, and how we bear the fact of war as we live ordinary lives.” (Summary taken from back of book)

This book was purchased at Goodwill in central Pennsylvania.

I struggled with all the parts set in the sleepy New England town of Franklin. First, I know there’s a real town of that name in MA that is inland, not on the coast, but that’s not what bothered me. What bothered me was that the townspeople are very flat; even Iris herself is uncomplicated. Emma and her storyline is pointless except to bring Iris and Frankie together. The parts of the book I did enjoy were Frankie’s bits; I really felt like the author depicted shell shock from war very well, and the fear refugees and common folk felt in Europe.

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Left at the library on a table.