The Good Pilot Peter Woodhouse

The author of the popular "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" novels presents a story of love and loss during World War II. Valerie Eliot, a 19-year-old Brit, becomes a Land Girl, or a farmer's helper, part of the Women's Land Army, since able-bodied men are serving in the military. Although a town girl, she enjoys learning about the farm and working with the kind farmer. When she meets Mike Rogers, a U.S. pilot stationed nearby, she falls in love quickly, and they become engaged. Peter Woodhouse, a mistreated sheep dog, ends up living with the airmen and even going on flying missions. When Mike's plane is shot down, he, the crew, and the dog are rescued by the Dutch and later a German soldier, Cpl. Karl "Ubi" Dietrich. The narrative's second half largely describes the life of the German soldier after he returns to his country after the war. There is a lot of plot for such a short book, but it moves along in a straightforward and eventual manner. McCall Smith offers a moving depiction of the hardships faced by the Germans following the war, including the suffering caused by the Soviet Union's blockade of Berlin from 1948 to 1949 (and the incredible feat of the Allied powers flying in food and even coal for Berliners for nearly a year). Readers who want to learn more about life in England during World War II should also read Angela Huth's Land Girls.