Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole

Best to state this upfront, I’m a total sucker for epistolary novels, so I eagerly opened this novel on a weeknight with lots scheduled for the next few days.  Silly me, no early bed times for me for the next couple of nights.   And yes, I read this engaging novel in two evenings.

It’s 1912 and Elspeth, an isolated poet on the Isle of Skye, receives a fan letter from a young American, Davey, as he is about to start college.  Thus begins a  5-year correspondence that starts as a friendship and grows into a love affair.  The story spans two wars, and is intertwined with Elspeth’s daughter’s (Margaret) letters as she struggles to unravel the mystery of her mother’s early years, this correspondence (affair) with Davey and ultimately, the family breaking apart.

The story is told entirely via letters,  which is a very difficult format to pull off.  Many such novels can border on the gimmicky…but not Letters from Skye.  Ms. Brockmole deftly builds her characters, giving them depth, layers and feelings. With each letter, the story, the characters and their strong bond are slowly revealed.

I had to remind myself that this was fiction, that these weren’t real letters or real people.  The letters also are able to  convey the  beautiful  ruggedness of the Isle of Skye and the war-torn Edinburgh.

Importantly this book made acutely aware of the lost art of letter writing  — where the letter-writer captures the day’s weather, mundane bits of daily life and bare their secret feelings and dreams on good old-fashioned paper.  Letters that were eagerly awaited, opened and treasured. Not like today’s temporary emails, text messages, tweets and Facebook postings.  Our correspondences are no longer treasured – what will we have to re-open, re-read, re-live?

It is obvious that the author did a great deal of research, so it’s a shame that some of the letters didn’t ring true with some of the language a bit “off” for the time period  — but that’s a minor quibble.

An enchanting book with characters that work their way into your heart.

I almost never do this anymore, but I’m keeping my ARC copy to re-read.

A quote from the book:  “I should have told you, should’ve taught you to steel your heart. Taught you that a letter isn’t always just a letter. Words on the page can drench the soul…”

Advanced reading copy provided by Random House, Ballantine Books.