Another pick from the NPR summer reads list

I typically shy away from war books. The feeling war brings to me is something I cannot explain. I feel blessed to have the life I have without worrying about war and bombs like many people of my age in parts of the globe. War books are really not my idea of a relaxing read.

Having said that, The Postmistress is a war book – a book about war but also a book about 3 women. 3 women who are totally different but somewhere along the way their lives get entangled.

Iris – The postmistress (or postmaster as she prefers) – she is all about rules, order and routine in the small town Franklin, US but she chose not to deliver a mail.

Frankie Bard- the narrator – a war reporter, her war stories churned my stomach. To be very honest, this book is not filled with blood and gore but the emotional part of war is difficult. Frankie’s radio voice from London brings war closer to Franklin residents take note.

Emma Fitch – the new doctor’s wife. Sweet, innocent, alone she faces reality and motherhood.

3 women and I was surprised that none of them struck a cord with me but then I really refuse to believe war as reality.

Dr.Fitch is shadowed by his past and after losing a patient he decides to go to England and help in the war, leaving his new wife. In England, he meets Frankie – the reporter they talk and Frankie sees Dr.Fitch die. The letter of Dr.Fitch’s dead reaches Franklin’s postmistress Iris and she chooses not to deliver it. After traveling through the war, Frankie returns to US carrying a letter from Dr.Fitch for his wife.