The Girl in the Blue Beret, Bobbie Ann Mason
The Girl in the Blue Beret, Bobbie Ann Mason
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The Girl in the Blue Beret

Author: Bobbie Ann Mason

Narrator: Fred Sullivan

Unabridged: 11 hr 15 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/01/2011

Synopsis

Inspired by a true story, the bestselling author of In Country offers a gorgeous, haunting novel about an airline pilot coming to terms with his past, and searching for the people who saved him during World War II. After Marshall Stone's B-17 bomber was shot down in occupied Europe in 1944, people in the French Resistance helped him escape to safety. One of the brave French people who risked their lives for him was a lively girl in Paris—a girl identified by her blue beret. After the war Marshall returned to America, raised a family, and became a successful airline pilot. He tried to forget the war. Now, in 1980, he returns to France and finds himself drawn back in time—memories of the crash, the terror of being alone in a foreign country where German soldiers were hunting down fallen Allied aviators, the long months of hiding. Marshall finds the people who helped him escape from the Nazis and falls in love with the woman who was the girl in the blue beret. He also discovers astonishing revelations about the suffering of the people he had known during the war. Bobbie Ann Mason's novel, inspired by her father-in-law's wartime experiences, is a beautifully woven story of love, war, and second chances.

About Bobbie Ann Mason

Bobbie Ann Mason is a bestselling author, winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award, and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, American Book Award, and PEN/Faulkner Award. Her memoir, Clear Springs, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She is a writer-in-residence at the University of Kentucky.

About Fred Sullivan

Fred Sullivan is an actor and an AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator. He has played over one hundred roles as an award-winning resident actor at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island. He is resident director at Gamm Theatre and teaches acting at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jo Anne

I didn't like the main character Marshall and could not relate to his aviation career or involvement in war. The writing was good and that is what kept me interested plus I wanted to know what was so special about the girl in the blue beret. Marshall's wife was dead and at the age of 60 he was retir......more

Goodreads review by Ali

This book would have been better had it been solely about Annette's experiences during WWII. I liked her, she was a fascinating character. She was spunky and brave and feisty and terrified, and always remembered to treasure her humanity. Compare that to Marshall, who spent most of the book whining......more

Goodreads review by Ellen

The premise is a good one - a retired airline pilot who, as a WWII aviator had landed a B17 in occupied France and had been rescued by the French Resistance has returned to France to reconnect with some of the French citizens who had sheltered him and safely gotten him back to England. The problem i......more

Goodreads review by Ron

Bobbie Ann Mason has long been considered one of the finest writers of regional fiction — Kentucky is her home and inspiration — but her affecting new novel takes place in France, and she’s just as comfortable and insightful there. Based on the experiences of her late father-in-law, “The Girl in the......more

Quotes

“A touching novel about love, loss, war, and memory…Mason’s latest, based on the real-life experiences of her father-in-law, is fascinating and intensely intimate.” Publishers Weekly

“Mason has given us a portrait of a man from a generation whose members were uncertain about the protocols of letting oneself feel. And she has lovingly captured the tone of bluff assertion still shared by veterans of that war. Marshall’s banality has the ring of truth; his awkwardness reveals much…The Girl in the Blue Beret is a work of remarkable empathy.” New York Times

“The profound story of an emotionally aloof retiree who must finally learn to stop flying above everything and embrace the people on the ground who saved his life…As much a historical search as a psychological one, and Mason has drawn the details of her downed airman’s ordeal from a range of published histories and interviews…A stirring tribute.” Washington Post

“The rich setting, detail, and intimate character nuances ring true…Highly recommended. Library Journal

“Bobbie Ann Mason knows her way around a good story…This is a war story told decades later, helped along by Mason’s extensive research in Europe, where she tracked down the real-life heroes herself. Ushering her readers back and forth across the decades, she perfectly weaves history with fiction.” USA Today

“Inspired by her father-in-law’s wartime experience, this novel at all times feels honest and real and offers a compelling story about the French Resistance…The true power of great fiction.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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