";s:4:"text";s:1546:" American War of Independence (1775-1782), the first of a series of wars of independence that ended European control of both North and South America. Quirky, witty, insightful with extraordinary originality that works. There's scandal, star-crossed love and fear, but at its heart, The …
. THE SUMMER BEFORE THE WAR By Helen Simonson 479 pp. . The author of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand may have another best-seller in this tale of life in the English village of Rye just before the Great War. $28.. Those whose imaginary escape route leads to early-20th-century Rye, the town in …
And, perhaps best of all, as we would expect from her, funny. . Her characters are so vivid, it's as if a PBS series has come to life. Russia's exit from World War One, in 1917, must have made an eventual victory for Germany seem quite likely to German leaders, … Simonson is like a Jane Austen for our day and age—she is that good—and The Summer Before the War is nothing short of a treasure.”—Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife and Circling the Sun “A bright confection of a book morphs into a story of dignity and backbone. Russia's exit.