Amelie at the Window

In wartime it is not only the soldiers on the front line that suffer. The families and communities left behind must try to make sense of the conflict imposed on them.

This story is set in a fictional town in France in 1914 and again in 1924. We meet Amelie, a teenage girl confined to her room by polio and her dysfunctional parents. Amelie dreams of release from the restrictions of her life in a room above a hat shop. Through her eyes we meet the townsfolk struggling through conflicts and coping with the fundamental changes that war brings.

We also meet the people that Amelie watches going about their business as the reality of war impacts upon their small town. The aspirations and fears of young and old, poor and prosperous, hard-working and indolent, are noticed by an itinerant photographer who returns in 1924 to record what has changed and what, if anything, remains of the old way of life. He sees possibilities for some and catastrophe for others; no one is the same after the war.

Penny Rogers captures the essence of small town life and the profound effects of war. We see compassion and judgment, humour and tragedy, generosity and selfishness; along with redemption in some unexpected quarters.