Amelie at the Window by Penny Rogers

 

Out 31 October 2025 - available on pre-order now  

In wartime it is not only the soldiers on the front line that suffer. The families and communities left behind must try to make sense of the conflict imposed on them.

This story is set in a fictional town in France in 1914 and again in 1924. We meet Amelie, a teenage girl confined to her room by polio and her dysfunctional parents. Amelie dreams of release from the restrictions of her life in a room above a hat shop. Through her eyes we meet the townsfolk struggling through conflicts and coping with the fundamental changes that war brings.

We also meet the people that Amelie watches going about their business as the reality of war impacts upon their small town. The aspirations and fears of young and old, poor and prosperous, hard-working and indolent, are noticed by an itinerant photographer who returns in 1924 to record what has changed and what, if anything, remains of the old way of life. He sees possibilities for some and catastrophe for others; no one is the same after the war.

Penny Rogers captures the essence of small town life and the profound effects of war. We see compassion and judgment, humour and tragedy, generosity and selfishness; along with redemption in some unexpected quarters.

RRP 

Paperback £7.00 

Kindle £2.25

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A real page turner. Not my normal reading choice, but I was pleasantly surprised. The characters were well-drawn as the story unfolded. By the end, I was left feeling sad as no one found true happiness. The book still made for a great read. Go on read it for yourself, you won't be disappointed.

A chilly October evening in 1914 in the shabby little French town of Forentan, a town in which there is “no hope and no future”.  Young Amelie, disabled by polio, is at her window as usual, watching the goings-on in the street below her and dreaming of escape. Through her eyes at first we are introduced to the apparently ordinary citizens of Forentan, but as the story unfolds Penny shows us through skilful character-drawing  that there is no such thing as ‘ordinary’ ­– that the place is full of secrets, of sometimes violent passions seething just below the surface of things that the war will exacerbate and bring to a head.

In Part 2 we return to the town ten years later with Gilles, a war photographer employed by Pathe News to document on film how rural and small town France has changed, hopefully for the better, since the war. He also has unfinished personal business in Forentan. What follows is a moving testament to the struggles of those who have few advantages to carve out a decent life for themselves against the background of huge world events. A truly absorbing read.

This is a fascinating 'photo album' of a group of neighbours in a small town in rural France, between 1914 and 1924.  The stories of their lives and loves intertwine in unexpected ways, and the incidents described from assorted points of view clearly convey the judgment, kindness, or tolerance of the character concerned.  An unexpectedly intriguing read with the final few pages providing a most original conclusion.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.            L.A.Cooke

 

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