All Clear – Connie Willis

2010, 656 pages

** Spoiler Alert: contains spoiler to the book “Blackout” **

This is the second half of the story that started in the book “Blackout”. We find Polly, Mike and Eileen where we left them at the end of “Blackout”, trapped in London in the middle of the Blitz, their drops back to Oxford of 2060 do not open, and Polly has a deadline, later during the war she visited for another research, and since she cannot be in two places at the same time, she will die if she doesn’t find a way to come back to 2060 before that.
The book follows Polly, Eileen and Mike trying to find a way out, find other historians with research trips to the same time whose drops may work, and coping with living in London during the Blitz. Polly is working at a department store, Eileen is still in touch with the kids that were evacuated from London and now they are back, including the insufferable Alf and Binnie, whom she can’t wait to get rid of, but finds herself saving them again and again, and Mike looking for the little heroes of the war, like he did in Dunkirk and plans to do in Pearl Harbor, and finds out he has to be one, if he wants to get Polly and Eileen out of the trap, as he promised them. And what about Mr. Dunworthy? Polly knows his first priority is the safety of his Historians in Oxford, and she is sure he will do anything to get them back. And Colin, the teenager who is in Love with Poly, in spite of all her efforts to make him forget her, but now she remembers his promise to come and get her if she gets into trouble – where is he? Will he keep his promise, before it’s too late?
We also follow other historians in other times during the war, and find out how they relate to the three main characters trapped in the Blitz. This is Willis’ 4th book with time travel (after “To Say Nothing of the Dog”, “Doomsday Book”, and “Blackout”, and there’s also the short story “Fire Watch”, closely related to this story), and here she is using the full potential of time travel to create scenes that are fascinating and touching. Reminded me a little the use of time travel in “The Time Traveler’s Wife”. I found myself fascinated to the story, cannot leave the book and can’t wait to find out what happened (but also unwilling to end the book at the same time).
I learned so much about England in WWII in the book, especially all these people who “did their bit” away from the front, with so much courage and determination. The descriptions were so vivid I could feel I am really there. These two books (“Blackout” and “All Clear”) were a real pleasure to read, Connie Willis at her best.