Bonjour Sophie

A book of two parts culminating in a coming of age for Sophie. Firstly she is in Sussex living with Knox and his wife Alice in their sparse vicarage and acting as their drudge having finished her schooling . She had a French mother who fled France in wartime and unfortunately passed away . Sophie wants to find out about her heritage before Knox uses all her inheritance to his own ends. She flees the village and goes to Paris to discover her past and her true self.
Beautifully written and well portrayed characters leading to an exquisite finale.
It is a slow moving book but it for hold one’s attention

Elizabeth Buchan’s most literary novel yet and as ever the writing is absolutely beautiful. It’s a true coming of age story, set in 1959, starting when orphaned Sophie leaves boarding school at the age of eighteen to become a domestic drudge to the vicar and his wife who have brought her up since her mother’s death years before.

The first half of the book is set in a stultifying Sussex village and Sophie longs to escape, instead finding not one, but two loves, which almost tie her down. Not to mention the thorny issue of getting hold of her inheritance before she’s twenty-one. Little by little we get to know her – as she gets to know her adult self – and feel for her sense of outsideness. The villagers around her are superbly drawn and as a reader you can actually feel how hemmed in she is.

Then, finally, to Paris, where a whole new world awaits. A different world, but an equally challenging one, although in different ways. Characters and settings here are wonderfully drawn too and the weight of the German occupation still hangs heavy over the city in so many small ways.

Although I found the story a little slow to start it completely absorbed me. More absolute brilliance from one of my favourite authors.

In June 1959, Sophie Morrel leaves the stultifying atmosphere of Digbys Boarding School with a rebellious sigh of relief, and no qualifications of note. She has to return to the village of Poynsdean in Sussex to the rectory of the austere Reverend Osbert Knox and his wife Alice, who are her foster parents and to a dull, dismal future.
Sophie dreams of more, she dreams of Paris, inspired by the stories her late mother Camille tells her. Camille flees France, pregnant, during the Second World War and is taken in by the Knoxs. How can Sophie get there? She has no funds she can access, zero encouragement, but what she has got is ingenuity. Can she escape her gloomy present, and become her true self?

I’ve enjoyed Elizabeth Buchan’s books for years now as she writes with wit and energy, and with devastatingly astute sentences that sum up situations to perfection. In a few broad strokes, we view the awfulness of Digbys and the Sussex rectory, poor Sophie. She is an orphaned square peg in a round hole in that environment. There are some vivid descriptions of creepy Osbert, who, for a vicar has very little kindness of heart. As for Alice, although I grow to feel for her just a little, lazy dissatisfaction sums her up, but she has the unerring ability to wound. Sophie herself is a fascinating character, I admire her from the very start, especially her independence of spirit as she bucks against the 1959 strictures for girls. At times it feels more like 1859, and Sophie is out of step.

The author captures the times, the expectations or lack of, and the small village attitudes and the disapproval, especially of her French background. However, she does find something good mixed in with the pursed lips, which, although it brings sadness. Ultimately, it also incentivises and awakens something in her. The novel is very insightful on the still reverberating impact of the Second World War, particularly the broken lives, and this is especially evident when the storytelling switches to Paris, where its effects are also visible. These parts of the novel are so atmospheric, its recent history proves highly relevant to Sophie as she investigates her background. Here she begins to gain her true identity, to learn exactly who Sophie Morrel is. She meets some very colourful characters along the way who help her to connect to the past.

This wonderful novel of an independent girls search for her sense of self encompasses a lot along the bumpy journey. She encounters love and loss, sadness and disappointment, occasional horror at the actions of others, as she learns the strange ways of the world. The author has me totally wrapped up in Sophie‘s life, egging her on and wishing her only the best, and with a sinking heart at the downturns. I love the ending, it finishes on such a good note and sums up one very key incident in her life and makes me smile. This is an immersive read from start to finish. Highly recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Atlantic Books, Corvus, for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

The year is 1960 and a young woman is growing up and becoming aware of herself and what she wants from life - and that isn’t an ordinary life in a dull English town, with people she doesn’t even like. After a short but intense relationship she decides to set sail for the Continent to find out about her family and particularly, how her father died.
The story then gathers momentum with Sophie experiencing all sorts of events in her life and has to learn both how and who she should or shouldn’t trust. She is given a taste of the high life and the chance to have a wardrobe of beautiful clothes and be wined and dined by rich and sophisticated men. For a time she forgets her plan to track down what happened to her father but towards the end of the story, her need to know returns and we are suddenly presented with the City of Paris and the story around her father and the truth of what happened to him.
This is both a pacy story and an adventure into life and the Rites of Passage for Sophie. The end is well crafted to also fill us in on what happened with Sophie’s lifelong friend. It is a really good book and thoroughly enjoyable.

Sophie Morrell lives in a small village in Sussex, but dreams of France, where stories retold by her mother were filled of her childhood. In Paris, Sophie learns of her beginnings, the reason why her mother ended up in Sussex. Written with love and warmth, ths novel is a must. Elizabeth Buchan has captured the life and times of the era and laid bare for us to enjoy. We learn of sophie's identity an all-encompassing story, of life, love, and coming of age. This is the second bhook I have read of Elizabeth Buchan. The first I did not enjoy, but this is a compelling read wrapped in history and the reality of war. A book I have thoroughly enjoyed and fully recommend.
My appreciation and thanks go to NetGalley and Atlantic Books, Corvus, for my advance copy in return for my honest review.

The era in which Sophie grows up is a familiar one to me, The nuances of society, the expectations of behaviour, caught so well in this book, and so unfamiliar to today. Sophie lives with the unspeakably awful Rev Osbert and his sad wife, desperate to escape them both. Her romance with Johnno is beautifully described and we feel the poignancy of what might have been. Arriving in Paris is a shock to the system rather than the hopes and dreams she had foreseen. Sophie is a resilient and brave character and carves out a new life.
This is a beautifully written book with so many layers of cleverly constructed writing. Elizabeth Buchan is an author whose books I enjoy reading. Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to review this one.