THE UNDERGROUND LIBRARY

Three plucky heroines are connected by a love of books that helps them cope through the London Blitz.

Sofie Baumann survives a risky journey out of Berlin in the spring of 1939 thanks to a visa that sets her up as a housekeeper in London. But her employer is a villain who works her to the bone, and she has little news of the sister and father she left behind. A year later, she finds solace in the Bethnal Green Library, where the new deputy librarian, Juliet Lansdown, has started a book group with the help of Katie Upwood, a library assistant. Juliet is making use of a rare job opportunity, thanks to the absence of men, as well as distracting herself from the news that her fiance is considered a deserter. Katie, meanwhile, learns that her boyfriend is missing in action overseas and then realizes that she’s pregnant. The book club provides respite: Juliet leads nightly readings, and Sofie suggests a poetry reading. When the Blitz begins in earnest and the library is bombed, Juliet and the club set up a new library in the Bethnal Green Underground Station, where hundreds of neighborhood residents shelter at night. Along with the makeshift canteens and first aid clinics, the underground library serves its community. While the stakes are high for these characters and they each find themselves in truly dire situations, the book tends to focus more on exposition than inner lives. Crises resolve themselves quickly and seem to leave very little mark. Everyone always finds themselves back in the library, with chorus after narrative chorus about the power of books.

A well-researched but low-impact story.