The Little Wartime Library: A gripping, heart-wrenching WW2 page-turner based on real events

Product Information

Along with her glamorous best friend and assistant librarian, Ruby Munroe, Clara ensures the library is the beating heart of life underground.

The library forms the heart of a community of thousands who bunked nightly in the unused tube station, which also boasted a theater, cafe, nursery, even a hairdresser.Amongst the plethora of WW2 stories, The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson is a shining beacon of factual truth, authenticity and beautifully written fiction. Right when it seems the most nonsensical time to put time and resources into a lending library, theater, or music, is exactly the time to do it and they did. This novel is a must for anyone who likes books set in this era and would like a glimpse into the lives and resilience of ordinary people in this harrowing time.

Based on true events, The Little Wartime Library tells the stories of Clara Button and Ruby Munroe during WWII. That was when I was quite keenly reminded of The Library Book even though that was a nonfiction publication. I liked the little romance for Clara though she’s getting past her loss so it wasn’t the forefront of the story. While the world remains at war, in East London Clara has created the country’s only underground library, built over the railway tracks in the disused Bethnal Green tube station.

Half way through it, I am loving it and have already bought a book written by the same author, also set in war time which I’m sure I will enjoy just as much. I was absolutely enthralled by the author’s fabulous descriptions which were so vivid that I felt like I was actually there experiencing everything alongside the characters. As the narrative progresses, we see how both Clara and Ruby not only stand up for their friends and family but are also compelled to make choices that would significantly impact their own stories. In a bit of serendipity, the Bethnel Green Tube station had not yet been put into service, so the space became the underground home for the community's displaced people.