"The Care and Management of Lies" by Jacqueline Winspear *****

• Audiobook
• English author
• Originally published in 2014
• Review:  I can only write this review after my tears have stopped falling and I have recovered my composure.  What a lovely, lovely book.  Winspear, whose Maisie Dobbs series has captivated me, diverges to a stand alone novel set at the beginning of WWI.  Two best friends, one of whom has married the other's brother,  must face the monumental changes which accompany the advent of the war.  One becomes an ambulance driver and the other manages her husband's family farm. Juxtaposed throughout the novel are the "words of wisdom" found in a wedding gift from one friend to the other, "A Woman's Book" , which is filled with the proper choices and paths for any woman of breeding and the reality in which these two young women are living.  The events chronicled in this story create a fascinating context for the reading of those words of womanly wisdom, written before female wartime ambulance drivers and females running farms.  Another highlight of this novel are the letters sent back and forth from the husband and wife, from the farm to the war front and back again. They are poignant, unusual, and I don't want to spoil them for potential readers.  Suffice to say that they become beloved by the husband's regiment and even the aristocratic officer in charge who must act as censor.  Just read it or even better, listen to it.  Soon!