Title: Peacetime
First published: 2002
Description: "Late summer 1946: a demobilized British officer oversees the demolishing of a defunct lighthouse in the Wash, a marshy area on England's west coast. Mercer, unhappy with his work crew and lonely staying in the remains of an old building on the site, attempts to get to know some of the local residents. Mercer complicates his relationship with them by cultivating friendships with a German POW, who wants to remain in England after the war, and a Dutch Jew, who is haunted by memories of the sister he couldn't save in the concentration camps. Tensions caused by the implications of Mercer's project and by the presence of foreigners in this isolated English area ultimately erupt in cruelty and violence.
Subjects: Fiction, Social life and customs, Manners and customs
Places: The (England) Wash, Wash, The (England)
Time periods: 20th century
LC classification: PR6055.D7 P43 2002