Beyond This Broken Sky by Siobhan Curham
A story of war, loss, and finding one ray of hope worth surviving for
Genre: Historical Fiction
Page Count: 316
Date of Publication: 20th April, ‘21
Rating: 4/5
ARC provided by Netgalley and Bookouture
Synopsis
1940, London. Ruby and her two tenants — Joseph and Kitty are living at the time of the outbreak of World War II. Soon, the city is bombarded by German airplanes. As they experience Blitz, witness ever-stood buildings crumbling down and people struggling to breathe under its debris, they feel compelled to serve their nation and people in any way possible.
Ruby and Joseph work as ambulance drivers and Kitty caters to the injured with first-aid kits. Just when they think they’ve been saving lives, they also have to see people giving up right in front of their eyes; hoping to catch one sight of their loved ones. The more time they spend rescuing people; the more they think they’re nearing their own death; the more they try to find reasons to survive every day, to breathe every second. Wars have rather monstrous impacts than crushing down buildings and people underneath them; wars leave lasting scars on the souls of people who witness them firsthand. Often time, war forces people to hope against hope.
2019, London. Edi has just divorced her husband and moved to London to work as Editor-in-Chief of a magazine. As she unpacks and strolls around in her new apartment, she finds a stained Khaki uniform hidden in her attic. All Edi has wished for is a new, welcoming, and feel-good house. It’ll need more than just a change of city for her to regain her faith in love and happiness; it’ll require a push from a tale of true love.
Despite not having any prior relations, two women from different centuries come together to tell an uplifting tale of hope and faith.
Some Insights
- Writing: For a novel set in the time of World War II, Curham’s writing makes it pretty easy to imagine the characters as real humans and the surroundings they were living in. Following a parallel timeline is rather easy than the ones I’d read before and all because of one secret that’s revealed within the first quarter of the book.
- Narration: The narrative shifts from the first person for Edi set in 2019 to 3rd person for Ruby and Joseph from 1940. There’s also a shift from Ruby to Joseph’s perspective, but it only adds up to their characters. All of the characters are given enough page count so the readers know what they are thinking, their secrets, and the reasonings and train of thoughts behind the decisions and the kind of people they are and why. It gave me time to get to know the characters a bit better, like them even.
- Story: I solely expected it to be a novel heavy on the scale of loss and death in the Britain War, but it explores the minds of the people living through it and the effect it can have on the decisions they make. This is a story about finding one reason to live when all of your other materialistic possessions have been snatched away. To my utter surprise, this is also a story about a writer finding the first word of inspiration for her novel.
Some instances purely caught me off-guard; when the skyline of the city is getting foggier and grayish as the days are passing by, there are people still living a normal life than the majority of the population, hotels serving delicious seafood and tea, even concerts during the lunchtime! I was determined to do my own research before I blindly believe the author. For the life of me, Curham has supported those instances with facts and help from the real-life experience of her grandmother as she’s mentioned at the end of the book. - Characters: From the very beginning, I was invested in the lives of Ruby and Joseph, and not so much of Edi’s. Ruby is a free-spirited woman who has traveled the world and is the very definition of a feminist at the time. She wears a wedding ring on her ring finger and calls it her ‘Ring of Freedom’. When she even feels a tinge of doubt or fear in her gut, she has her papa’s support and word of advice, and never does she shy away from speaking her mind. Though she can be a bit of a chatter-box altogether!
Joseph had the ill-fate of experiencing the aftermath of World War I and that was when he decided to be a conscientious objector. He’s made a promise to himself to not take the lives of others, even if they were the evil Nazis, but he won’t cease helping people either.
Kitty is a woman who has lived the entirety of her life in the shadow of a man and has feared him just the same. She doesn’t know that she’s been wishing for a way out until the war outbreaks and she helps others, finding a new meaning for herself too.
Edi was the person I was least interested in, at first but as I neared the end, she became the very definition of me as a reader. Edi still has a lot to figure out as an individual now that she’s divorced, but for her to start believing in love again, she would need to give herself some time. - End: There are two ends to two stories; one that I saw coming and the other one that astonished and made me smile. The ending of the novel is the dream of any reader — to see the characters one has grown to adore come back to life so one can devour more of their characters. I found the end oddly satisfying, despite Curham leaving some lose threads, but they often slip away from the mind to pay notice to.
Recommendations
This is a book for lovers of Historical Fiction and parallel timelines. If you’re in search of lovable, relatable, and funny characters, I’d recommend this book for you. I’m not much of a romance reader but a story that does it seamlessly as a side-plot is something that I enjoy reading; if you’re the same, Beyond This Broken Sky would please you just right.
An easy book to sail through but with some figments that can prick your eyes and warm your heart.
Want to read more from the genre? The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr are two of the best from the genres, and I recommend both. They are absolute tear-jerkers and filled with heartaches. Check them out too!
Read my thoughts on The Book Thief here
Final Thoughts
I was expecting a book filled with characters and scenes that would break my heart into pieces but I was laughing at the comments exchanged between Ruby and Joseph. Ruby is definitely my favourite character of all, even though she made me question her wits once or twice.
Parallel storylines are one of my favourite narration tools of all time and it was certainly done differently in this one. I’d hate it if any books make me question my preference. Though I was highly conflicted for the major part of the novel whether I liked the way Edi finds out about Ruby and Joseph, but by the end, I’d made peace with it. For me, the end of the story was a major selling point. As I said earlier, one that every reader enjoys.
It seemed that the more violence the Germans inflicted upon London, the more acts of love it inspired. A line from one of her favourite Dickens novels came to her mind: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” He really could have been writing about the Blitz.
Happy Reading!
