Charlotte Gray

I had high expectations for this novel and unfortunately they were not met. While the characters are interesting and the plot is interesting the storyline was not plausible in my view. Is Charlotte really part of the war effort and the resistance or is she interested in hanging out in France to reconnect with a country she loved in earlier days and to (somehow) seek out her lover who is missing in France (sorry for the spoilers) and rescue him. Further the book's depiction of the plight of Jewish characters is likely accurate and definitely sad but to what end? Charlotte seems saddened by the devastation of Jews, particularly those she came to know in France, but is clearly not outraged by it. When she is debriefed in London, she does not mention the plight of European Jews to her intelligence handlers. In addition Charlotte's emotional issues with her father, while seemingly important, are too veiled throughout the book until they are thrown in at the end. Overall a decent read but disappointing

If you are a fan of the time period within which this story takes place, or enjoy things French, English, and Scottish, this book will please you. Aviation buffs and romantics will find a good read too. It is written with insight into human strengths and weaknesses and is done with an eloquent use of language. My only difficulty with the writing was indeed the eloquent use of words and phrases with which I am unfamiliar, but this is a plus actually as it taught me new things about writing a novel and being intelligent while doing it.

I couldn't resist picking up this novel after reading the back cover. A young Scottish woman (Charlotte) follows her downed pilot lover (Peter Gregory) to France as a Secrete SOE-type agent to help the French Resistance, and perhaps even rescue Peter. The plot sounds very intruiging...unfortunately, the author didn't pull it off nearly as well as he could have. Peter Gregory dissapears somewhere over France at the very beginning, and has very little to do with the remainder of the book. He's just sort of gone. Charlotte, in France all because of Peter, doesn't seem to have the passionated motivation to find him that I would have expected. Instead, she finds Julian, a member of the Resistance who develops an attraction to her. And yet she keeps herself unattatched (for the most part). Meanwhile a subplot about two young Jewish boys in hiding develops, abut the main characters have relatively little to do with them...and a depressing subplot it is. Faulks knows how to develop drama in a sweeping-type story, but the story itself felt fragmented, like a bunch of different pieces that didn't completely come together. On the other hand, the material was well-researched (through interviews of real people) and though fictional it was historically accurate. kudos

Not one of his best. Starts off as a story about 2 people- Charlotte and Peter - and then just Charlotte. Big holes in the plot - Peter crashes and next we know is in Marseille then UK. How did Charlotte get out - the unremarked exit by Lysander

very professional

I liked it because it's based on a real person. It also goes into really great detail about life in France during the German occupation.The characters are developed well and in depth.The real Charlotte died recently and her ashes were scattered in the area were she operated during WW11.

Just in the first pages of this great novel, Faulks' descriptive language is amazing in it's use of unusual adjectives. Then you realize you are already hooked by the 'juddering' of a bicycle and that 'baggy grey horizon'. And the love story...Well, you'll just have to read it...

Good book

This is the sort of book that makes you wish for a silent corner in which to read, reflect and consider and since finishing the book, the story has very much stayed with me.The titular character, Charlotte Gray, comes from Scotland and after having a brief, passionate affair with airman Peter Gregory, decides to join the British Special Operations Group in the hope of being deployed to France where she can search for Peter who by now is missing in action. We follow Charlotte's story as she is recruited, inducted and then sent to the small town of Lavaurette in the Free Zone of France. There, she carries out her secret missions as well as trying to locate Peter, unsure if he is even alive.At times, it is a very hard read. Sebastian Faulkes evokes the feel of a small, French town, its inhabitants and their differing political views. Peoples everyday lives go on, but the threat of German occupation of the town and more worryingly what will happen to the town's Jewish residents is creeping ever closer. Charlotte Gray is a beautifully written, evocative and at times, distressing read, which makes it such an important novel to read.

I listened to this as an audio book, and much enjoyed the narrator's rendition of the characters esp. Charlotte's soft Scottish lilt.So much could say about the novel -will be brief though. Charlotte the main character goes on a journey to occupied France during world war 2, undercover for 'G Section' in order to help the French resistance. But her bosses back in the UK don't know that she is also in France to find her lost airman lover. As she travels in France in the guise of an assumed identity, and gets involved with local people and embroiled in their lives, Charlotte starts to find out who the real Charlotte is and to address the rift between herself and her father.I admire the way Faulks gets underneath his character's skins, Charlotte's especially. Physically, emotionally, mentally. He has a wonderfully straightforward, unshowy writing style which slowly draws you in until you are deep into the story, walking with the characters and seeing from their eyes - and knowing where to pull back, where to focus closer.There are some difficult-to-read concentration camp scenes later on in the book.

Perhaps there have been too many SOE yarns published since Charlotte Gray but I found this book at times strangely turgid with the writer going to extraordinary lengths to describe the inner workings of two people in love, one of whom is training to be a spy and the other is risking his neck most days in the RAF. If this wasn't enough, as the Germans tighten the noose round a small French village, we are obliged to listen to the self-obsessed thoughts of an elderly Jewish painter who has lost his mojo - and is about to lose a lot more than that. The novel felt bizarrely adolescent - not quite knowing who it was, clutching at grand ideas, quoting Proust, making sure that everyone, even the collaborators, were given a justification for their actions. Yet these actions, all of them, every moment of the plot felt hackneyed, derivative, underwhelming. The only genuinely upsetting and moving story was that of the two little Jewish boys whose whereabouts are betrayed to the SS by a mother who is about to witness the rape of her daughters because they refuse to reveal their hiding place. Other than that, in the spirit of Proust's a la recherche de temps Perdu, I kind of wish I'd never started this book.

From the very beginning I felt I was with Charlotte Gray .I was with her on her dangerous mission in Vichy France . The characters she met were so well depicted they became almost real. The Jewish situation in 1943 France was described in such a way as to be heartbreaking and I found myself wiping away a tear or two. As I approached the end of the book I slowed down my reading as I didn't want it to end.

An incredibly vivid story about Charlotte Gray's induction into covert work for the British in rural France. We follow her emotional journey from finding love in London, only to lose her fighter pilot lover when he is reported missing over France. She embarks on her first mission and finds herself drawn into the lives of the local people and decides to stay. And, she is convinced that her lover is still alive. A brilliant read.June Finnigan - Writer