Human Voices [B1831]

2015 PB in nice clean condition. Inspired by the Booker Prize-winning author's own wartime experiences at the BBC, Human Voices is a novel at once "funny, touching, and authentic" (Sunday Times, London). The nation is listening. It's 1940, and BBC radio is on the air. Dedicated to the cause, it's going to do what it does best: keep the British upper lip stiff without resorting to lies. But nightly blackouts and the thunder of exploding enemy bombs are only part of the chaos faced by the staff. There's a battle for control between two program directors-one recklessly randy, the other efficient. Their comely assistant is suffering the pangs of unrequited love; an unwed mother is resisting the impending birth of her baby; and an exiled French general takes to the airwaves demanding Britain's surrender. Then there's the concert hall itself-a makeshift shelter for the displaced employees, that quickly becomes a hotbed for quick trysts, bloody brawls, private wars between the sexes, political grandstanding, pointless deaths, and overriding fear, as the news unfolds just outside the building's vulnerable walls.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "I absolutely loved this delightfully quirky and well written book, with plenty of gentle humor. It centers upon the lives and loves of some of those working at Broadcasting House during WW2. I enjoyed Fitzgerald's satirical look back at the prejudices and casual misogyny prevalent at that time. There are poignant moments too, reflecting the arbitrary effects of the Blitz on the lives, families and homes of Londoners.

Overall a lovely book to curl up with on a Sunday afternoon."; "Another sublime book from Fitzgerald, a pitch-perfect little story about the BBC ('old' Broadcasting House) during the London Blitz, a mother ship sailing doggedly against the tide of government intervention and the gathering storm from Europe."; "Very entertaining, yet moving depiction of working at BBC Broadcasting House during the blitz. Fitzgerald combines eccentric characters and mavericks at work in the BBC with a strikingly honest and real portrayal of what it was actually like in wartime London."; "There is not a strong plot, rather the discovery of the characters comes from the reader seeing them in "moments" both private and at work in their dealing with the war and their own lives and interrelationships. The relationship between the two department heads and the evolution of each of them separately was the thread that runs through the book, and the ending of the book was unsettling. This book, although hard to describe, was very rewarding. I will read more of Penelope Fitzgerald."