51-9CpAA1+L._SL500_Synopsis: “Clara Button is no ordinary librarian. While the world remains at war, in East London Clara has created the country’s only underground library, built over the tracks in the disused Bethnal Green tube station. Down here a secret community thrives: with thousands of bunk beds, a nursery, a café and a theatre offering shelter, solace and escape from the bombs that fall above.
Along with her glamorous best friend and library assistant Ruby Munroe, Clara ensures the library is the beating heart of life underground. But as the war drags on, the women’s determination to remain strong in the face of adversity is tested to the limits when it seems it may come at the price of keeping those closest to them alive.
Based on true events, The Little Wartime Library is a gripping and heart-wrenching page-turner that remembers one of the greatest resistance stories of the war.“

My Review

I loved this audiobook so much that it gave me a book hangover! I loved being in the company of Clara and Ruby ‘Red Lips’ and all the other East Enders portrayed in this wonderful novel.

The story starts in 1944 when Clara Button is featured in a newspaper article about the underground Library, and then follows her, Ruby and the residents of the shelter until the end of the war. I loved getting know Clara, Ruby and company, they all felt like real people. In fact one the characters is based on a real person, as mentioned in the author’s note at the end of the book.

I loved everything about this book, but I especially enjoyed the storyline about the two Jersey girls who were evacuated to the mainland during the Occupation of the Channel Islands. It was lovely to hear my island home being featured, as my Mum was very nearly evacuated but my Papa, her Dad, changed his mind at the last minute, and they stayed instead. I probably wouldn’t be here today if they’d left.

I loved Sarah Durham’s narration, she was superb at all the different characters, bringing them to life perfectly!

Highly recommended if you enjoy historical fiction set in London in World War 2

Book 2 of 20 Books of Summer