Bookmarks Issue:   A-The Guernsey LiteraryThis enchanting novel
in letters is the posthumous debut of the late Mary Ann Shaffer,
a librarian whose niece, children’s author Annie Barrows, helped
her finish the manuscript after she fell ill.  The Story: In
1946, Juliet Ashton, a British newspaper columnist whose
cheerful wartime articles have been collected into a successful
book, is having trouble adjusting to life in postwar London.
Under pressure to produce a new best seller, she receives a
letter from a stranger on Guernsey, which mentions the Channel
Island’s oddly named book group, formed during the German
occupation as an alibi for breaking curfew one night. She starts
to correspond with the group’s members and, moved by their
heartbreaking stories of life under Nazi command, quickly
recognizes the potential for a new book. But when Juliet starts
to fall in love with one of her new friends, she faces a
difficult choice. Dial Press. 288 pages. $22. ISBN: 0385340990
Charlotte Observer 4 of 5 Stars "The ch