When The Sky Fell Apart

"…it was a different place, Jersey, since they had taken over. They had built grey walls and shelters. They had slapped concrete on the beautiful old castles. They had chopped down whole areas of woodland. The land was butchered. Scarred"

When The Sky Fell Apart is the first novel by Jersey-born poet and author, Caroline Lea. Some two weeks after England withdrew troops from Jersey, in 1940, and evacuated those who wanted to leave, the island was bombed by the Germans, who then proceeded to occupy with a twelve-thousand strong force of soldiers. Life was suddenly very different for the Jerriais.

Ten-year-old Claudine Duret's father has left to fight; she does her best to help her Maman, (plagued by black moods since the birth of baby Francis) to make ends meet. Shunned by the other school children (too smart for her own good!), she makes friends with Gregor, a German soldier who occupies a bunker on the beach. But "It was impossible in this new, shifting world called Occupation – a sort of stasis of enforced peace amid war – to know whom to trust'

Dr Tim Carter, an Englishman who ought to have evacuated, is determined to do his best for his patients, even if they afford him little respect. But Tim acknowledges that he is a coward (the reason he left England proves that, he knows), and soon finds himself faced with a dilemma. While at first "…he could see no gain in succumbing to the rising heat of hysteria that sparked with every mention of the German forces: fear only made bullies more powerful, after all", in the end, his actions brand him a traitor with the islanders. "Sometimes it's necessary to do the right thing. Sometimes the right thing is also wrong".

Maurice Pipon, a fisherman whose sole purpose is to care for his adored but now invalid wife, Marthe, is determined to protect her from the soldiers at all costs. He risks everything, breaking curfew, to get out onto his beloved waves: "He'd cast his net out as if in a dream. A sort of magic to the action: like flinging out hope. Full of holes. Then sit and wait, every breath a prayer. Then tug and heave and dredge up wriggle-bodied treasure, slippery and gleaming"; his catch can supplement the meagre rations they are allowed.

Edith Bisson is the island's herbalist, and a Jerriais to her very bones. Labelled a quack by many, her popularity increases as Dr Carter's wanes. She observes what is happening to her cherished home place and tries to care for those who need it most. But then events see her considering the unthinkable: "It's a peculiar feeling, measuring out need and hope and love, as though they are liquids that can be crammed into cups".

Lea's attachment to Jersey is apparent in her gorgeous descriptive prose: "The island was like a beautiful jewel formed by years of pressure and compression, shaped by the elements and then constrained and combed and ordered by the metallic tools of man. The result was a savage, wild and rugged land with the long grasses gusted about by the wind, toothed ricks jutting from the soil, crusted with lichen: thousands of attentive gold and black ears, gaping at the slightest whisper of wind" and "They watched the shifting, rumpled surface of the sea, wrinkling under the fingers of the wind" are examples.

Her research into her subject, likewise, can be seen in the tiny details she seamlessly includes in her story. Her characters are realistic, multifaceted and appealing, for all their flaws. Her plot is original, with a twist or two before the final, heartrending climax. And throughout, evocative prose that glitters like the sun on the sea around her birthplace: "But then she coughed again, and it sounded like when the waves rattled stones on the beach. The rattling went on for a long time. Claudine knew that, over many years, the sea could make huge boulders disappear. She wondered how many coughs it would take for Maman's lungs to be worn away to nothing". Quite a remarkable debut novel.