The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson, 473 pages

"The Summer Before the War" is set in East Sussex, England in 1914.  Beatrice Nash arrives in the community set to become a Latin teacher at the local school.  Latin is not a subject a woman typically taught in pre-World War I, England.

The world is beginning to change, but it is still a shock to the community when the young, much-to-pretty-to-be-a-spinster school teacher arrives.

This lovely book takes us into the lives of the people in the idyllic coastal town of Rye and then into the horrors of World War I.  It is one of those wonderful, well written novels that is hard to put down and I'm sad to leave behind.