BookBrowse Reviews All the Little Hopes by Leah Weiss

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In Leah Weiss's second historical novel, two young girls come of age in a North Carolina town dealing with the repercussions of a nearby German prisoner-of-war camp.

Leah Weiss's World War II-set All the Little Hopes is heavy on plot, perhaps even stuffed with it. It is 1943 and 13-year-old Allie Bert arrives in Riverton, North Carolina to stay with her aunt after her mother dies, but her aunt is mentally unwell so instead she is taken in by the Brown family. The Browns run a farm and specialize in beekeeping, and Allie Bert, who goes by Bert, fits right in with daughter Lucy, who is the same age. Then Bert's uncle disappears. Later, two other men follow suit. Lucy and Bert become determined to find out what happened to them. At the same time, a prisoner-of-war (POW) camp is erected in Riverton to house German soldiers captured on the front (see Beyond the Book), some of whom are sent to the Browns' farm to work.

The novel shimmers with the vivid voices of its two narrators, Lucy and Bert. The girls are different enough to offer two unique perspectives of everything that unfolds in Riverton, but similar in the important ways that foster a flourishing friendship. Readers might easily identify with Lucy, the bookworm who wishes more than anything that Nancy Drew was real, or tomboyish Bert who struggles with guilt related to her mother's death and later falls easily under the spell of a touring musician lothario. Both characters are charming and well-developed, and both will appeal to those with fond memories of encountering Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird for the first time. It is a joy to watch the girls learn about life and friendship over the course of the novel, particularly as they attempt to solve the mystery of the missing men (with the help of a Ouija board). Another dynamic character, Trula Freed, is rumored to have powers of psychic intuition and healing, which are incorporated into the novel just enough to provide further intrigue. Riverton is populated with interesting people, including town wunderkind Whiz Mayhew, who returns from the front a broken man, allowing the author to explore the physical and emotional repercussions of war.

The plot involving the German POWs is handled with care, albeit somewhat superficially. The townspeople, including the Browns, are initially apprehensive about the camp, and particularly about the prisoners coming to work on the farm. However, they soon discover that these men are decent people not so different from themselves, and they develop close, caring relationships with them. The one holdout is adult daughter Helen, whose husband, Wade, went overseas to fight and is now missing in action. Helen gives birth to their first child, and when she discovers one of the POWs holding her baby, she becomes furious. It feels as though the author is suggesting the reader should be judging Helen for her lingering hostility as she holds the Germans in her midst responsible for her husband's disappearance, but it is hard not to sympathize with her pain.

Still, the novel raises salient questions about hate, and how it is easy to get caught up in a cycle of anger and animosity toward anyone who is different. Weiss stresses the importance of compassion even for those who may initially appear to be undeserving of it, and of maintaining hope under the bleakest of circumstances. As Lucy tells Whiz Mayhew, "Mama says hope is a road in life, and it's easier to travel than despair." Weiss also demonstrates powerfully that family is something that's forged and fashioned out of mutually caring relationships, not just ties established through bloodlines.

All the Little Hopes offers a vivid and compelling sense of place in the town of Riverton and characters it is a pleasure to come to know and watch evolve over the several years in their lives the novel covers. Though the plot is a little overstuffed, there are few scenes that seem extraneous, and Weiss ties the different storylines together with skillful attention to detail and conscientious character development.

This review first ran in the September 22, 2021 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.