It starts with a pig. Honestly, if you haven't read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society book, you might think that's a joke. It isn't. The whole plot kicks off because a group of friends on a Nazi-occupied island had to hide a roast pig from the Germans and needed a cover story for being out past curfew. They claimed they were at a book club. And then, because they were being watched, they actually had to start one.
That's the kind of whimsical, heartbreaking, and deeply human irony that defines Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows’ masterpiece.
Most people know the 2018 movie with Lily James. It’s fine. It’s pretty. But the book? The book is an epistolary novel—meaning it’s told entirely through letters, telegrams, and the occasional diary entry. That format sounds like it would be a slog, right? Wrong. It makes the story feel like you’re eavesdropping on a private conversation between the most interesting people you’ve ever met.
The Strange Birth of a Bestseller
The backstory of how this book even exists is almost as moving as the fiction itself. Mary Ann Shaffer was a librarian and an editor who had a lifelong dream of writing a book. She became fascinated by Guernsey—one of the Channel Islands—after getting stranded there during a heavy fog in the 1970s. She spent her time in the airport library reading everything she could find about the German occupation.
She didn't write the book until decades later.
Tragically, as the manuscript was being finalized, Shaffer’s health failed. She knew she couldn't finish the heavy revisions her editors wanted. She asked her niece, Annie Barrows (who is a celebrated children's author, famous for the Ivy + Bean series), to step in and help bring it over the finish line. Shaffer passed away in early 2008, just months before the book became a global phenomenon.
Why the Occupation Matters So Much
We talk a lot about WWII in pop culture, but we usually talk about the Blitz or D-Day. We rarely talk about the Channel Islands. They were the only part of British territory occupied by the German Army.
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Imagine being an islander. You can see the coast of France, which is occupied. You know England is just across the water. But you are cut off. The Germans took the radios. They took the livestock. They took the dignity of the local population. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society book captures that claustrophobia perfectly.
The "Potato Peel Pie" of the title isn't some gourmet delicacy. It’s a symbol of starvation. When you have no flour, no butter, and no sugar, you make do with what’s left. Will Thisbee, one of the more eccentric members of the society, invented a pie made of mashed potatoes, potato peelings for a crust, and... well, not much else. It was probably disgusting. But it gave them a reason to sit around a table and pretend, for a few hours, that the world wasn't falling apart.
Juliet Ashton: Not Your Average Heroine
Our protagonist is Juliet Ashton. She’s a writer in post-war London, 1946. She’s successful, but she’s bored. She’s been writing humorous columns under a pen name, Izzy Bickerstaff, but she’s looking for something with more weight.
Then she gets a letter.
It’s from Dawsey Adams. He’s a pig farmer on Guernsey who found her name and address inside a secondhand book by Charles Lamb. He wants to know if she knows of any bookstores in London that could send him more books by Lamb.
This is where the magic happens.
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Juliet doesn't just send a book. She starts a correspondence. Soon, she’s writing to the whole society. She meets Isola Pribby, who makes "elixirs" and owns a parrot; Eben Ramsey, the wise grandfather figure; and the ghost of Elizabeth McKenna, the woman who actually founded the society but has since disappeared.
The Heartbeat of the Story: Elizabeth McKenna
You never actually meet Elizabeth in the "present day" of the book. You only see her through the eyes of the people who loved her. She is the moral center of the story. While everyone else was trying to survive, Elizabeth was trying to live. She helped a slave laborer—one of the many "OT" workers the Nazis brought to the islands to build fortifications—and paid a heavy price for it.
Her absence is a character in itself. It’s what gives the book its grit. If this were just a story about people liking books, it would be "twee." Because it’s a story about the cost of courage, it’s a classic.
Addressing the Misconceptions
Some critics dismiss The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society book as "comfort read" or "cozy fiction."
That’s a bit reductive.
Sure, there’s a romance. Yes, the setting is charming. But the book deals with forced labor camps, the betrayal of neighbors, and the lingering trauma of war. It explores how people who lived side-by-side for decades suddenly had to decide if they could trust one another when the food ran out.
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The nuance is in the letters. You see the different "voices" of the islanders. Some were collaborators. Some were silent. Some were heroes. Shaffer and Barrows don't paint the Germans as a faceless monolith either; they show the complexity of individual soldiers caught in a machine they didn't necessarily believe in, while never excusing the atrocities of the regime.
Reading it Today
Why does a book written in 2008 about a war in the 1940s still trend on TikTok and Bookstagram?
Because we’re lonely.
We live in an age of instant digital connection, but most of us don't have a "society." We don't have a group of people who would cover for us if we stole a pig. Juliet’s journey isn't really about finding a husband—though that’s a nice byproduct—it’s about finding a tribe.
The book argues that literature isn't just an academic pursuit. It’s a lifeline. For Dawsey, reading Essays of Elia was the only thing that kept his mind from rotting. For Isola, Wuthering Heights offered a drama more intense than her quiet life.
Actionable Takeaways for Readers and Fans
If you've already read it, or if you're about to dive in, here is how to get the most out of the experience:
- Read it, don't just watch it. The movie is great for the visuals of the English Channel, but it cuts out about 60% of the character development found in the letters.
- Look up the real history. Research the "Organisation Todt" in the Channel Islands. Knowing that those fortifications were built by real people in horrific conditions makes Elizabeth's story hit ten times harder.
- Try an Epistolary Challenge. Write a physical letter to a friend this week. There is a specific kind of intimacy in the written word that the book celebrates, and it’s something we’ve largely lost.
- Check out Annie Barrows' other work. If you liked the tone, her non-children's fiction, like The Truth According to Us, carries a similar warmth and historical depth.
- Visit (if you can). Guernsey has leaned into the book's fame. You can actually take tours of the locations mentioned. It’s a rugged, beautiful place that feels trapped in time.
The real power of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society book is that it reminds us that even in the darkest times, humans will find a way to laugh, to eat (even if it’s just potato peels), and to tell stories.
Next Steps for You:
If you want to dive deeper into historical fiction that handles the "home front" with similar grace, your next read should be The Chilbury Ladies' Choir by Jennifer Ryan or The Postmistress by Sarah Blake. Both capture that same sense of community under fire. If you’re more interested in the specific history of the occupation, look for The Model Occupation by Madeleine Bunting—it’s the definitive non-fiction account that inspired many of the details in Shaffer’s novel.