To take on history and turn the tide of the Second World War on its head is a brave step for any writer, and could easily spell disaster for the narrative, yet Sheers creates his alternative history with such skill and populates it with such natural characters that you are drawn in and inhabit with them this new and dark reality.
Part of the skill is to have placed the drama well away from the centre stage, the whole novel revolves around the fact that the valley is forgotten, beyond the back of beyond. Therefore history is hinted at without the need for grand set pieces, Hitler visits London in a rumour rather than a fully form account.
There is a deep sorrow under this story and as it came to a conclusion you wished for other choices to be made yet you accepted that there were no "other choices" open. What it says about love is hard to understand, what it says about the power of women is in the end uncomfortable. It is writing at its best and this will linger on.
From the weak reviews of the film adaptation it would appear that failed to live up to the quality to the novel.
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