These Days by Lucy Caldwell: A Wartime Historical Fiction Novel Based in Belfast

Posted On January 7, 2024

Hi Readers! First book review of the year is here! I have been reading These Days by Lucy Caldwell all of December, and finished it only this week. I see so many readers talking about their first book of the year. Unlike everyone else, I did not feel the significance of putting so much pressure to pick the first book of the year though. Even if a book is rated 5 stars by everyone, it doesn’t mean that it will be a 5 star-read for me. So, I am just going to read whatever I want whenever. So, anyway, here we are with my very first read of the year which was quite average, despite it winning the Walter Scott Prize in 2023.

~~GOODREADS DESCRIPTION~~

Two sisters, four nights, one city.

April, 1941. Belfast has escaped the worst of the war — so far. Over the next two months, it’s going to be destroyed from above, so that people will say, in horror, My God, Belfast is finished.

Many won’t make it through, and no one who does will remain unchanged.

Following the lives of sisters Emma and Audrey — one engaged to be married, the other in a secret relationship with another woman — as they try to survive the horrors of the four nights of bombing which were the Belfast Blitz, These Days is a timeless and heart-breaking novel about living under duress, about family, and about how we try to stay true to ourselves.

~~THOUGHTS~~

I am an ardent historical fiction reader, especially books set in WWII. I have read it from different authors with the stories based in France, Germany, Russia, United States & England. In ‘These Days’, the story is based in Belfast, Ireland. When you read the blurb, you can imagine what is likely to follow, and yet, the brutality of the war always comes in horror after reading each novel, no matter where it is based. Because with fiction, it’s always the people and the characters’ lives that we read and get to experience in the face of such catastrophic uncertainty.

In this book, we see how Belfast is bombed on four nights, divided into sections titled The Dockside Raid, The Easter Raid & The Fire Raids. Imagine the impact of a bombing every night. Would you be alive? Would your family make it? Or would your entire street vanish along with the houses and the people living in them? Unimaginable, isn’t it? And, despite the author picking such a devastating era, the impact the writing had was unfortunately not powerful enough.

There was an imbalance between the character-driven aspect and the plot-driven aspect. We get to know the two sisters well enough. We have Audrey who is engaged to a man she doesn’t love. We have Anna who is in love with a woman. Despite the emotional turmoil that both the sisters go through, sadly the readers don’t go through those dilemmas with them.

In some narratives though, the quiet reading screams out loud. A mother talking about how the door needs to be repainted when there is a chance the whole house could blow up the next day. Or, a daughter hiding a new shaving kit to give her father who is in the navy, not knowing whether he will make it back. Or simply a woman shopping for her wedding dress while there is a war on. The unceasing hope in humanity, in the minimal times where it is written, is written with beauty. You cannot help but stop and ponder about it all in such narratives.

Like many wartime historical novels I have read, I felt that this one had a lot of potential, but it went unrealized. I still love to think about what the book could have been and be content about my hypothetical reading experience. I have rated These Days by Lucy Caldwell at 3.5/5 stars!

Until next time,