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Rain Doesn't Fall on Angels
The ‘phoney war’ ends when Hitler launches his blitzkrieg on Western Europe, 1940. Three unlikely lives are destined to a French doctor, a German tanker, an English pilot. It becomes more about love than hate, about humanity rather than enmity.
240 pages, Paperback
Published August 16, 2018
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October 23, 2018
A major achievement by a talented writer!
This intricately plotted historical novel spans more than six decades with the central drama played out in German occupied France where a courageous and compassionate French doctor cares for two badly burnt young men, injured while fighting on opposing sides in the war, an English patient and a German patient. This scenario is a perfect vehicle for an exploration of recurrent themes in the writer's previous novels - the arbitrary nature of friend and foe, the possibility of empathy between enemies, the power of love and the effects of hate, and all the complexities and contradictions of the human condition.
Meticulous research is a particular strength in all of Eldridge's novels. In this case the details of combat, the backdrop of WW2 events and the exigencies of daily life in an occupied country all combine to create an authentic historical drama. I found the medical details of the treatment of burns particularly interesting.
The impressive cast of characters in the novel allows the writer to explore a very wide range of human behaviour. The unforgettable Doctor Joubert and his daughter, Damiane have to endure not only the German occupiers but also the ugliness of human nature in their own village, Chalonsay - in the form of weak, self serving and vindictive civilians. The two young patients, Bastian and Sandy are brilliantly evoked in the opening sequences and are thoroughly credible and compelling characters. And the dastardly Leutnant Max Weber is a controlling and conniving villain, adding credibility to the courage of the French Resistance fighters and the cowardice of many citizens and collaborators.
I thoroughly recommend Rain Doesn't Fall on Angels and am eagerly awaiting the next novel by this very talented writer.
This intricately plotted historical novel spans more than six decades with the central drama played out in German occupied France where a courageous and compassionate French doctor cares for two badly burnt young men, injured while fighting on opposing sides in the war, an English patient and a German patient. This scenario is a perfect vehicle for an exploration of recurrent themes in the writer's previous novels - the arbitrary nature of friend and foe, the possibility of empathy between enemies, the power of love and the effects of hate, and all the complexities and contradictions of the human condition.
Meticulous research is a particular strength in all of Eldridge's novels. In this case the details of combat, the backdrop of WW2 events and the exigencies of daily life in an occupied country all combine to create an authentic historical drama. I found the medical details of the treatment of burns particularly interesting.
The impressive cast of characters in the novel allows the writer to explore a very wide range of human behaviour. The unforgettable Doctor Joubert and his daughter, Damiane have to endure not only the German occupiers but also the ugliness of human nature in their own village, Chalonsay - in the form of weak, self serving and vindictive civilians. The two young patients, Bastian and Sandy are brilliantly evoked in the opening sequences and are thoroughly credible and compelling characters. And the dastardly Leutnant Max Weber is a controlling and conniving villain, adding credibility to the courage of the French Resistance fighters and the cowardice of many citizens and collaborators.
I thoroughly recommend Rain Doesn't Fall on Angels and am eagerly awaiting the next novel by this very talented writer.
Displaying 1 of 1 review