New York Times best-selling author Martha Hall Kelly, known for her historical fiction, takes us back to a time when world history touched our Island’s shores. Kelly’s new novel, “The Martha’s Vineyard Beach and Book Club,” is rooted in her ties to the Island, which began when her great-grandparents, who were farmers here, arrived in 1891. Kelly’s mother grew up on the farm, and would tell tales about remarkable events on the Vineyard during World War II. Kelly noted in a recent interview, “She would [be in bed] at night, and hear the German U-boats coming out from the depths just offshore, because they had to recharge their batteries. They were trying to sink anything going abroad that would’ve helped the European cause in the war. My mom also told me about guys who came off a Nazi sub and had dinner at the Beach Plum Inn.”
Kelly begins her story in 2016 with a mystery. Mari Starwood arrives on-Island from Los Angeles. Having recently lost her mother, she has come to discover why the name of a famous Vineyard painter, Elizabeth Devereaux, was in her mother’s effects after she died, indicating that she had plans to visit the Island. Mari is confused, believing her mother never left California. Devereaux launches into a tale about two sisters on the Vineyard during the war, in order to reveal the connection.
World War II profoundly shapes the lives of 19-year-old Cadence and 16-year-old Briar Smith. The Army uses their farmland as they struggle to make ends meet with their grandmother, a backbone in the community –– and the officers on the Island bring both romance and potential danger.
We enter the 1942 timeline learning of Briar’s obsession with the war and her search for U-boats, and other signs of Nazi infiltration. She tells us that there is a death on the way, but one that nobody saw coming. The situation becomes serious when a mysterious man washes up unconscious on the beach. Kelly writes of Briar marveling when discovering him, “How could this be happening on our little island? I’d never felt more alive, unraveling the puzzle of who he was.” His presence alters everyone’s lives forever when the family takes the man in, agreeing to hide him for a short while.
Keeping the man a secret is no easy feat. Officers abound, including one who tangles with Cadence. This ever-changing relationship is just one of the romances that interweave through the novel.
Cadence, a journalist for the local paper, longs to be a professional writer. Coming from modest means, she works at an exclusive beach club and writes summaries of novels for wealthy guests who wish to appear to their friends as though they have read the books. Kelly shows that the divide between the haves and have-nots, between privileged summer visitors and working Islanders, has antecedents in that of the present day.
Cadence yearns to leave the Vineyard, and an encounter with a well-connected woman in the New York City publishing world fills her with desire when she is offered an opportunity for her dreams to come true. But when Cadence’s brother goes off to war and her grandmother becomes sicker, she struggles with her sense of obligation to stay and help her hard-pressed family on the farm. In an attempt at normalcy, Cadence and her best friend Bess start the book club of the novel’s title.
Kelly based Cadence on her mother, who longed to leave the Vineyard, and indeed started a book club: “She had such good friends here, and they used to go to the beach together, eat egg salad sandwiches, and talk about books.” Kelly based Cadence’s grandmother on her own grandmother, and Cadence’s best friend Bess was inspired by two of her mother’s close friends, Betty Cottle and Shirley Kennedy: “Writing about my family was just wonderful. It was like they came alive again and I could be with them.”
Alternating between the two sisters, Kelly creates compelling suspense and captures the essence of the Island in an earlier era. “I’ve been coming to Martha’s Vineyard for 68 summers now,” she said. “I wanted to recreate what it felt like, even in my early years — to bring back that lovely time on the Island and in our country when we weren’t so divided, and were all pulling at the same oar. There was so much kindness in the world. I hope I provided a place you can travel back to that is lovely and peaceful.”
Ballantine Books will publish “The Martha’s Vineyard Beach and Book Club” by Martha Hall Kelly on May 27. Kelly will launch her book on July 8 at the Grange from 4 to 6 pm. Visit mvpreservation.org for more information and registration. Kelly will appear at the Katherine Cornell Theater through the auspices of the Vineyard Haven library on July 9 at 6 pm, and at Islanders Write on August 18.
