The Girl in the Pink Raincoat
Life for factory girls was uneventful in Manchester, an industrial city in northwest England in 1939. For Gracie Earnshaw, working in a factory making raincoats, the only bright spot was her developing relationship with Jacob, nephew of the German-Jewish owner of the company who shows her a world of theatre and music that she had never imagined.
When Gracie and Jacob fall in love and decide to marry, they face opposition because of the difference in religion. But this is nothing compared to the opposition on their wedding day when Jacob is arrested because World War 2 is beginning, and he is German. The wedding does not take place, and Gracie spends weeks searching for the internment camp where Jacob might be held. Finding it, they are able to connect very briefly before he is deported with many other Germans in the direction of Canada.
When his ship is torpedoed, Gracie is inconsolable. Her mother seems too distracted to offer support, so she finds some support with a man she works with, a man who has his own problems. Meanwhile Gracie’s mother rocks her world again by revealing a shocking secret that leaves Gracie her increasingly vulnerable. The war is starting in earnest with heavy bombing across the city, but Gracie has rediscovered theatre and the magic that Jacob showed her… and perhaps more.
This book is difficult to put down. The characters drew me in, especially Gracie, who seems to epitomize the women battered not only physically but emotionally by war and the events surrounding it, ones over which she has no control. The detail of Manchester in that period is precise, the dialect is minimal but accurate, and the attitudes of the time are realistically portrayed. All this adds depth and colour to a strong and riveting story.
