The Martha’s Vineyard Beach and Book Club by Martha Hall Kelly is a historical novel inspired by true events in the lives of the author’s family members during World War II.
The novel’s storyline oscillates between 1942 and 2016. Key characters during the wartime period are the Smith sisters, Cadence and Briar. In 2016, Mari Starwood, a young woman from California, comes to the Vineyard in search of her late mother’s connection to the island. Mari meets Elizabeth Devereaux, a famous but reclusive Vineyard artist, who tells her a story from the war years.
In 1942, seventeen-year-old Cadence and fourteen-year-old Briar Smith help their grandmother run Copper Pond Farm, perched high on a cliff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Briar, Cadence, and Cadence’s best friend, Bess, work the fields and sell fruit and produce at the farm stand.
The farm’s income is not enough to support the family, especially after their older brother, Tom, is shipped overseas to fight in the war. To make ends meet, Cadence, an aspiring writer who dreams of going to New York to work at a major publishing house, takes a job as a waitress at the country club.
Briar carves miniature models of German ships and planes at the Vineyard’s model shop. Accurate replicas of enemy craft help Army intelligence quickly identify planes or submarines approaching the island. A watchful and alert girl, Briar spends much of her free time tracking suspicious activity. She becomes particularly concerned with German submarines she claims to see from the high cliffs above the shore. Overwhelmed by her frequent alarm calls, the authorities nickname her “Briar the Liar” and do not take her reports seriously, dismissing them as the product of a vivid imagination.
Both sisters are voracious readers. After the United States enters the war, very few new books arrive on the island due to shortages and shifting priorities. The girls read and reread whatever books they can find at the Vineyard’s bookshop or library. Cadence, Bess, and Briar form a book club, holding meetings on the beach and sharing books with other islanders through the “library” they maintain at the farm stand.
Bess, whose affluent Boston family spends summers on the Vineyard, is deeply in love with Tom. The couple became engaged before Tom left for war. Soon afterward, Bess leaves her parents’ cottage and moves to the farm to escape her mother’s disapproval of her relationship with a “poor island farmer.”
As Elizabeth’s story unfolds in the present, Mari is stunned to discover that her connection to the island and to the Smith family farm runs far deeper than she ever imagined.
During the war, Martha’s Vineyard becomes an important center for tracking German submarines along the Massachusetts coast. The U.S. Army prepares the island for potential invasion by building an airfield and assembling defense forces. Military exercises conducted by newly arrived troops frequently encroach on the farm’s fields, threatening the harvest the sisters depend on to survive the winter.
A mysterious young man, discovered by Briar washed ashore below the Smith farm, claims to be a German soldier and a deserter from a submarine. His secret presence at the farm creates even greater challenges for the sisters.
The titular Martha’s Vineyard Beach and Book Club becomes an important symbol of community, connection, and unity during difficult wartime conditions. The novel’s themes of love, resilience, and patriotism highlight the vital roles women played on the home front. While much World War II historical fiction focuses on battlefields or overseas settings, this novel offers a compelling portrayal of the hardships and pressures experienced at home.
