The Underground Library

One London Underground station became a refuge for readers during the Blitz, thanks to the heroic efforts of Bethnal Green library staff, who moved the library’s books to the station for safekeeping after the building was bombed in 1940. In her latest novel, Ryan (The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle) draws inspiration from this real-life history to tell the story of three women whose lives converge in this unusual library setting. Librarian Juliet is eager to bring new ideas to Bethnal Green, despite her boss’s resistance, but is grieving a fiancé who has gone missing on the front lines of the war. Katie is also grieving a loss while trying to hide a life-changing secret from her protective parents, and Sofie has come to England as a wartime refugee who is desperate to receive news of loved ones left behind. While Ryan’s plot is fairly predictable, and her villains sometimes seem cartoonishly evil, the novel’s three heroines are well-developed and easy to sympathize with. Ryan also vividly captures the Blitz home front spirit of cooperation and grit.