Books At 12:10 - November

Howard Norman's What Is Left The Daughter, Books at 12:10's November selection, was set in Nova Scotia during World War Two. World War Two history focuses greatly on the Holocaust; an earlier Books at 12:10 selection, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, told in letters the story of Nazi invasion of the Channel Islands. What Is Left The Daughter is told as a long letter written by Wyatt to his daughter in the 1960's. Although not among the primary events of World War Two, the U-Boat activity in the Atlantic was significant, an important story. The novel brings the story into focus through people in a village in Nova Scotia during attacks of U-Boats on the Canada East Coast.

The novel's main characters live in Economy, a bus can take them to Halifax. There is a financial constriction that makes their lives limited. The traditions of Nova Scotia are told by an author who has lived and traveled in Nova Scotia. The Books at 12:10's group today discussed the many aspects of the story of Wyatt, the young man taken in by an uncle and aunt after the suicides of his parents, and his continued life in Halifax.