Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave

Melancholy … harrowing … excellent … those are three words that I would use to describe Everyone Brave is Forgiven a brand new novel by Chris Cleave (author of Little Bee). Everyone Brave is Forgiven is a book that I did not want to put down.  Based loosely on Cleave's own grandparents, the story is set during World War II, primarily in London and the island of Malta in the Mediterranean.

This amazingly well-written story begins with Mary North, a privileged young woman who volunteers to support the war effort.  She finds her calling as a teacher and grows increasingly fond of Tom Shaw, her boss at the Education Authority.  It is through the eyes of Tom’s flatmate, an officer in the Royal Artillery named Alistair Heath, that most of the battlefield action and deprivation are seen.

Cleave is not only a master at describing scenes and characters, he also evokes moods, makes social commentary in regards to gender, class and race, and effectively conveys that long ago (yet somehow universal) time:  

“It was big of the Italian aviators to let a mail plane through on Christmas Day.  One hoped that one’s own side was reciprocating.”

“… the ironed creases in the uniformed trousers of the policeman who stood at Hyde Park Corner directing the traffic with his immaculate white armbands.  All these timeless things could be seen more clearly when one had so little time oneself.”

“It was not a level playing field where parents were concerned: they had known her in every year of her life, he not yet in every season of the year.”

“And so we prescribe the countryside for our children and the bombing for theirs? How can you ask me to make peace with a society that makes this kind of war?”

“War made one do everything when one wasn’t at all ready.  Dying, yes, but also living.”

Everyone Brave is Forgiven received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. Highly recommended for adult book groups and more mature high school students.