WHEN THE SKY FELL APART
Caroline Lea
Text Publishing
By VICTOR BILLOT
In June 1940, the armed forces of Nazi Germany invaded the undefended Channel Islands. The United Kingdom had evacuated its forces to the mainland, and thousands of the Channel Islanders had departed as refugees.
Many locals remained, and then spent the next five years living under the Occupation. Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands (it's still very small), was heavily fortified as part of the German defences known as the ‘‘Atlantic Wall'', utilising the forced labour of prisoners of war.
Occupied Jersey is the setting of this debut novel by Jersey-born writer Caroline Lea.
The focus of the novel is the reactions of the local population, and the decisions they are compelled to make, as they attempt to survive.
The multiple viewpoints are given voice by four very different people whose lives are entangled as a result of the war.
Edith Bisson, a widow and herbalist, is drawn into a relationship with a German deserter; Timothy Carter, an emotionally damaged English doctor, is compelled into personal service of the sadistic German commander; and Maurice, a simple but fiercely loyal fisherman, is caring for his chronically ill wife.
Claudine Duret, a young, precociously intelligent girl, with a troubled family background, becomes a connection linking all of them.
Their lives are drawn together as the desperate situation moves them inexorably towards a shared fate.
The islands are on the verge of starvation, vital supplies are short, and the sick go without proper treatment. The local people are divided, as some resist the Occupation as best they can, while others adjust to the new reality by collaborating with the Germans, in some cases out of venality, in other cases compelled by fear.
The parochial insularity of the small island population, and their distinct Norman French influenced ‘‘Jerriais'' heritage, introduce other elements of interest.
This is a strong and lyrical first novel, that moves adroitly from the obscenity of war to the characters' interior lives and emotional complexities of marriages, children, loss and loneliness.
It was also a personally interesting read for me. My father was born in June 1940 in Jersey, shortly after the arrival of the German forces.
His family remained on the island. By all accounts life was very hard, as the islands were not liberated until after VE Day, with the German garrison surrendering without a fight.
To this day, the massive concrete fortifications built by forced labour remain, strangely futuristic and grim sentinels on the Jersey coastline, stark reminders of the Occupation.
Victor Billot is editor of The Maritimes, the magazine of the Maritime Union.
