Published 28th April 2022 by Hodder and Stoughton.
From the cover of the book:
Freedom worth fighting for. Love worth waiting for.Left profoundly deaf after an accident, Émile is no stranger to isolation - or heartbreak. Now, as Nazi planes loom over Guernsey, he senses life is about to change forever.
Trapped in a tense, fearful marriage, Isabelle doesn't know what has become of Émile and the future she hoped for. But when she glimpses him from the window of the French House, their lives collide once more.
Leutnant Schreiber is more comfortable wielding a paintbrush than a pistol. But he has little choice in the role he is forced to play in the occupying forces - or in his own forbidden desires.
As their paths entwine, loyalties are blurred and dangerous secrets forged. But on an island under occupation, courage can have deadly consequences...
Lyrical, moving and compelling, this is a novel about wanting to hear and learning to listen - to the truths of our own hearts.
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Guernsey 1940: The Nazi occupation of the Channel islands has begun, and life here in Guernsey is about to change in many ways.
Profoundly deaf for almost all his adult life after a horrific accident when a young man, tomato grower Émile finds himself out of a job, with wife Lettie and two daughters Maud and Stella to support. His married life is permanently troubled these days, his eldest daughter Maud is more than a little rebellious, and the prospect of being unable to find work under the new German regime does little to promote domestic harmony. When a twist of fate finds him working closely with his first love Isabelle, Émile begins to question the turns he has taken in life and how he feels about the painful way in which they parted years ago.
Isabelle is trapped in a marriage to a violent and controlling man that has brought her nothing but sorrow. She finds respite in her job as housekeeper at Victor Hugo’s former residence, Hauteville House, in St Peter Port, which is known locally as The French House. The German Occupation has made Isabelle fearful for the future of The French House, and the small feeling of independence that working there gives her, but the Nazis seem content to limit their interference to demanding that the beautiful gardens be turned over to the production of fruit and vegetables. It is a scheme that brings her face-to-face with the man she betrayed all those years ago, her first love Émile, forcing her to confront the truth about what happened between them.
Leutnant Schreiber is a sensitive and artistic soul, at odds with the harsh measures of the Nazi occupying force he is part of, and his hidden desires make him wary of making friends. Billeted with Isabelle and her husband, Schreiber finds himself becoming close to this woman, as her unfulfilled life and the loss of her own son brings out her maternal feelings towards him. Unexpectedly, his need to keep his secrets away from prying eyes also brings him close to Émile, and an unspoken friendship springs up between the three of them - a friendship that will mark the course of the rest of their lives.
The French House is a wonderfully evocative wartime drama set on the picturesque island of Guernsey, during the years of the German Occupation. Against the intricately described background of an intriguing period of history, Jacquie Bloese explores the complexities and divided loyalties of three very different characters who are thrown together by circumstance and the secrets they keep.
Interestingly, Émile, Isabelle and Schreiber each feel isolated and alone for a number of different reasons that Bloese deftly examines as she entwines their stories. Their developing connection brings anguish and tragedy, but it also forms an unbreakable bond between them that allows them to move forward - especially for Isabelle and Émile. This is essentially a gentle love story between two sweethearts divided by misunderstandings and the interference of others, who come to realise that they still care deeply for each other, and Isabelle and Émile's story forms the core of the many threads that Bloese weaves around them. There are some wonderful threads here too, that I am loath to give spoilers about, but I can say that they that force you to look hard at human frailty - Lettie's story is particularly intriguing, with a lot to delve into around her motivations and actions; and Maud's search for the truth behind the secrets her parents have kept from her is very poignant.
Curiously, despite the atmosphere of fear that Bloese creates so exquistely in these pages with her wartime setting, there is a fascinating quality to her writing that keeps an intensity on the emotional side of the story, rather than making this a tale about the horrors of war. She does not shy away from the hardship and privations visited on the people of Guernsey, and there are moments of shocking brutality that leave you in no doubt about what life under the Germans meant for these people, but somehow she rather cleverly makes you focus on the less tangible elements of the story that underpin everything - on human connection; the impact of love and loss; and on bravery, spirit and sacrifice. This serves to make it something of a heart-wrenching story about honesty, and listening to one another, examining how the barriers that prevent us hearing the truth go way beyond the physical, and it really gets under your skin.
I absolutely loved this powerful and sweeping story. I was completely immersed in the lives of these characters, with them at every heart-pounding moment, and felt the tears running down my cheeks at the end. This is an impressive debut and I cannot wait to read more from Jacquie Bloese.
The French House is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.
Thank you to Hodder and Stoughton for sending me a hardback copy of this book in return for an honest review.
About the author:
Writing fiction is her first love and her work has been shortlisted for the Good Housekeeping First Novel Award, Caledonia Novel Award, and the Mslexia Novel Award.
After many years in London, Jacquie now lives in Brighton, with her partner.
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