Off the Wild Coast of Brittany
A ferry crossing the choppy Atlantic from France’s Wild Coast of Brittany, La Côte Sauvage, shuttles tourists onto the docks along the rocky shore of the island known as Île de Feme. Juliet Blackwell artfully guides readers from the dock on the present-day island, with touristy souvenir shops and pubs with Wi-Fi, to the seaweed-covered steps of the lighthouse guarded by Nazi soldiers in July 1940.
Only a few steps from the dock sits the ancient three-story stone house Natalie Morgen is supposed to be renovating into a quaint guesthouse and restaurant with her famous boyfriend-chef, François-Xavier. However, the pie-in-the-sky plans of Natalie, a bestselling memoir author and social media sensation, have gone awry. The sudden, mysterious arrival of her older sister, Alex, not seen for 10 years, adds to her financial stress and lack of writing oomph. The sisters, raised in a survivalist compound in California, have certainly survived, but with their own set of emotional and physical issues to face.
Juliet Blackwell expertly weaves current issues facing Nat, Alex and women today with the women on the Île de Feme in 1940. Based on Général de Gaulle’s exhortation, all the men of fighting age sailed to England to join the Free French Forces fighting the Nazi invasion of France, while 300 Germans occupied the island. Violette, a young islander, introduces readers to the legend of the Gallizenae, the herbs and cures of the village healer, the German invasion of the island, and how the women survived.
Juliet Blackwell’s Off the Wild Coast of Brittany, presented in dual timeline with three narrators, examines the themes of allegiance to one’s country and family values, life-altering physical conditions, isolation, independence and self-worth. An “island” view of World War II.
