I have always had a soft spot for WWII stories, whether they are books or films, so The Many Seas to Guernsey was very much my kind of book. But what I particularly enjoyed about this one was that the war is not just a backdrop to a love story. The novel explores faith, morality, conscience, privilege and, above all, what it means to remain human when the world around you is becoming increasingly inhumane.
The story begins in Guernsey in 1936, where Kitty Garland-Fry meets Lukas von Harnitz, a young German training to become a Catholic priest. The first part of the book has a very different atmosphere from what follows. Guernsey, with its beaches, caves and relatively peaceful existence, provides the setting in which Kitty and Lukas meet and develop a connection. It reminded me at times of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, although the stories themselves are quite different.
One of the first things that intrigued me was Kitty’s family. They are unconventional to say the least. An artist living with two wives, the first wife accepting the arrangement because she understands the relationship between the artist and his muse, a house constantly filled with creative people, atheists and people who don’t seem particularly interested in conforming to society’s expectations – they could easily have been written as a collection of eccentric characters.
But there is something rather refreshing about them.
Despite all their unconventionality, they have a very clear sense of humanity. They don’t need to belong to a particular religion or political group to recognise suffering. They don’t view the war through the lens of nationality or faith. When Jewish people begin to suffer, they see victims rather than asking which side they belong to. In retrospect, I found this family one of the most interesting parts of the book because the people who initially appear to be the odd ones out often seem to have the clearest understanding of what really matters.
Lukas’s story takes this idea much further.
When I first realised that the hero was training to become a priest, I expected the book to involve a great deal of unquestioning faith. Instead, I found Lukas’s journey one of the most compelling parts of the novel.
He believes strongly in what Christ teaches about the value of human life, and that belief is precisely why he cannot accept what is happening around him. He is openly opposed to the Nazis from the beginning and does not have to go through a period of deciding whether he should resist them. His problem is that the people and institutions he expects to stand for the same principles don’t always do so.
His disillusionment begins when he discovers that even his mentor is more concerned with protecting the church and seminary than standing up for what is right. From there, his doubts continue to grow. The novel raises some uncomfortable questions about what happens when the behaviour of religious institutions and religious people seems completely at odds with the principles they claim to represent.
I particularly appreciated that the book does not treat this as a simple argument against faith. In fact, one of the things I kept thinking about while reading was that Lukas’s determination to help others seems to have been shaped by the very teachings he eventually becomes unable to believe in.
He helps Jews escape. He puts himself in danger for people who are essentially strangers to him. He eventually experiences imprisonment and torture, and the depiction of what he goes through is difficult to read. Later, when he is sent to the battlefield and witnesses even more death and bloodshed, his faith finally collapses completely.
And yet, even after he renounces God, he doesn’t renounce humanity.
That contradiction stayed with me.
The book repeatedly comes back to the idea that perhaps God is kind, but humans are capable of being extraordinarily cruel. And it made me wonder whether Lukas would have been able to endure so much for other people if he had not grown up believing so strongly in the message of Christianity about human beings and compassion in the first place.
It is an interesting question because most of us may consider ourselves good, well-meaning people, but how many of us would actually put ourselves through torture or risk our lives to help strangers?
Lukas’s journey eventually takes him somewhere unexpected. After everything he has experienced, he finds himself helping wounded people medically and discovers that this feels far more meaningful to him than simply preaching about humanity. He regrets the years spent studying theology when he could have been learning how to physically help people. By the end, his idea of what it means to serve others has changed considerably.
I thought this was a beautifully developed character arc — not because it is sentimental, but because it feels like a genuine evolution in his understanding of faith, service and humanity.
Kitty’s journey is equally interesting.
After marrying Caspar, Lukas’s cousin, she gives up her British passport and becomes a German citizen. What she encounters in Germany is increasingly horrifying. The book does a particularly good job of showing how Nazism infiltrated everyday life — brown shirts everywhere, people reporting Jewish neighbours, families reporting members of their own families, synagogues being burned and Jewish people being forced to surrender their valuables.
It isn’t presented only as something happening at the highest levels of government. You see how ordinary people become participants, whether through conviction, fear, opportunism or simply a willingness to look away.
Kitty, meanwhile, quietly becomes involved in helping Jews, particularly children, escape. Even as her personal circumstances become increasingly difficult, she continues doing what she can. Her transformation from an outsider looking at Germany with horror to someone actively taking risks to help people trapped there is one of the strongest parts of the story.
The aristocratic family into which she marries provides another interesting perspective. They are not all Nazis in the same way. Some are devoted followers of Hitler; some initially look down on him because he is not of their social class; others gradually become enthusiastic as they see Germany gaining territory and themselves gaining influence and power.
I liked this aspect because it shows that political movements do not necessarily attract people for one single reason. Some believe. Some benefit. Some adapt. Some convince themselves that what is happening is acceptable because it serves their interests.
The novel is divided into three parts, and the middle section, set largely in Germany, is by far the longest. This is where both Kitty’s and Lukas’s stories become much more intense. By the third part, with Poland invaded and Britain and France entering the war, the situation changes again and Kitty desperately tries to make her way back to Guernsey.
I won’t go into what happens after that because there are several important developments that are much better experienced while reading.
The book does contain some disturbing themes, particularly the descriptions of persecution, torture, war and the treatment of Jewish people. The questioning of religion may also be uncomfortable for readers who prefer their faith to be presented without challenge. Personally, I found that aspect thought-provoking rather than problematic.
If anything, it was one of the reasons I found Lukas’s story so interesting.
The novel also reminded me of All the Light We Cannot See in the way it moves through different European settings and follows ordinary people caught up in enormous historical events. Saint-Malo is even mentioned, which made that connection stronger for me.
There was only one plot point I wished the author had dealt with a little more fully. Without giving anything important away, Caspar’s fate is left somewhat hanging after Kitty manages to escape from Germany. Given the role he plays in the story and the fear surrounding his possible discovery of where Kitty has gone, I would have liked to know what ultimately happened to him. It didn’t spoil the ending for me, but I did find myself wondering about it.
Apart from that, I honestly don’t have much to criticise. I enjoyed this book enormously and, more importantly, I found myself thinking about it even when I wasn’t reading it.
It is a substantial book, but I didn’t find myself wishing it would end. In fact, I couldn’t put it down from the first few pages. The combination of WWII history, romance, moral questions, family dynamics and the very different journeys of Kitty and Lukas kept me invested throughout.
The Many Seas to Guernsey is ultimately a story about two people trying to hold on to their humanity in very different ways. And perhaps that is what I liked most about it. The characters are surrounded by people arguing about religion, nationality, politics, social class and power, but the question that keeps coming back is much simpler:
What are you willing to do for another human being when doing the right thing comes at a personal cost?
That is a question that makes this more than just another WWII love story.
Disclosure: This book was sent to me by the author for review. The opinions above are entirely my own.
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