Homeland
by Clare Francis
Pan, $101
There's double satisfaction in reading Homeland: it's entertaining as a literary novel and informative as a historical account of a group of Polish soldiers sent to Britain after the second world war. The Polish Second Corp, who had fought with the Allies, opted not to return to their Soviet-dominated homeland after hostilities ended. Many were thus held in resettlement camps in Britain, including one in the Somerset Levels, where Clare Francis' novel is set. Their plight is related through the letters her character Wladyslaw Malinowsky writes to his sister. In one, he reveals: 'The British people ... cannot understand why we are reluctant to go home.' Francis excels in creating setting (cold and miserable) and in crafting characters (same adjectives apply) trying to survive dire post-war conditions. Billy Greer returns from the war to find himself managing his uncle's dried-up willow business. Despite escalating anti-Polish sentiment, and because London beckons, he hires Malinowsky to help save the farm from ruin. Homeland may not be the cheeriest read, but readers will be heartened by Francis' skillful creation of atmosphere.
