I love learning more about World War II. Dunkirk is an amazing (and new to me) true story of a rescue that saved thousands of lives.
Synopsis taken from Amazon:
The Battle of Dunkirk, in May/June 1940, is remembered as a stunning defeat, yet a major victory as well. The Nazis had beaten back the Allies and pushed them across France to the northern port of Dunkirk. In the ultimate race against time, more than 300,000 Allied soldiers were daringly evacuated across the Channel. This moment of German aggression was used by Winston Churchill as a call to Franklin Roosevelt to enter the war. Now, historian Joshua Levine explores the real lives of those soldiers, bombed and strafed on the beaches for days on end, without food or ammunition; the civilians whose boats were overloaded; the airmen who risked their lives to buy their companions on the ground precious time; and those who did not escape.
My Thoughts:
Because this is now a movie, this updated version of Dunkirk, which was initially released in 2011 features an interview with the producer, Christopher Nolan, giving background information on why he chose this project. I loved reading this and getting Nolan's insight.
I don't have a lot of knowledge about the British military during World War II, so this was a new to me story, although the "Dunkirk Spirit" is still referred to in England.
This book focuses on how England worked to evacuate soldiers from Dunkirk to bring them back to England, rescuing 260,000 soldiers in all - an amazing feat. Men waited along the shore, some for days, waiting to be rescued, forming a little society of their own.
The whole story is incredible and one that will hopefully become well known with the release of the movie. I'm a "read the book before you see the movie" type of person, oftentimes skipping the "see the movie" portion altogether. However, I think this would be a great film to see, and be even more meaningful having read the book.
Thanks to TLC Book Tours for providing a copy of this book for my review. All opinions expressed are, as always, my own.
Visit the HarperCollins website for more information about Dunkirk by Joshua Levine.
2 comments:
I'm looking forward to reading the book and watching the movie. Like you, I'm a "read the book first" type of person, and this seems like an excellent book/movie pairing.
Thanks for being a part of the tour!
We went to this movie with Dylan. Guess I will have to find the book. Most of my family was on the fence about the movie as it's a bit artsy with only a little dialog. I enjoyed the movie and a new WWII story.
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