REVIEW: It is the summer of 1944 in Nant, a small Welsh town that finds itself home to something it never expected — a regiment of Black American GIs, far from home, carrying the weight of a war they have been asked to fight for a country that does not fully claim them. In the evenings, the Rivoli Ballroom becomes a place of music, laughter, and something close to peace. It is there that young Ginny Lloyd does something quietly extraordinary — she crosses the room and asks American soldier, Samuel Grant, to dance. What grows from that single, courageous act becomes the kind of love that does not fade with time, even when time takes everything else. Fifty years later, Ginny — long married and carrying a lifetime of unspoken grief — makes contact with Samuel's mother in Georgia, and in doing so, cracks open a past she has spent decades learning to live with. The secrets that surface change everything. A SOLDIER'S GOODBYE is poignant, quietly devastating, and utterly unforgettable.
Ginny captured my heart immediately. She is not a grand or dramatic heroine — she is simply a young woman living an ordinary life who steps into something extraordinary with one small act of courage. What Norma Curtis does so beautifully is honor the fullness of Ginny's interior world — her longing, her loyalty, her grief, and the particular kind of sadness that comes from loving someone across an impossible divide and never quite getting to the other side. Watching her as an older woman revisit that love, with all the wisdom and weariness of a life lived in its shadow, is deeply affecting.
Samuel is equally well drawn. He is tender, principled, and acutely aware of the precariousness of his position — a Black man in uniform in 1940s Britain, welcomed in some rooms and refused in others, asked to risk everything for freedoms he himself does not yet fully possess. His relationship with Ginny is written with honesty and sensitivity, and the tenderness between them feels completely real.
What genuinely surprised and moved me was how much history this book opened up for me. I was not aware of the significant presence of Black American soldiers in rural Wales during World War II — the communities they built, the relationships they formed, and the profound injustice of their situation both abroad and back home. Norma Curtis handles this history with reverence and specificity, and reading it felt like a discovery. This is the kind of novel that sends you looking for more — more history, more stories, more truth about lives that deserve to be remembered.
A SOLDIER'S GOODBYE is emotional, richly historical, and deeply human. A solid A.
18th June 2026 | romcol@caribsurf.com | romcol1962@gmail.com
Ginny captured my heart immediately. She is not a grand or dramatic heroine — she is simply a young woman living an ordinary life who steps into something extraordinary with one small act of courage. What Norma Curtis does so beautifully is honor the fullness of Ginny's interior world — her longing, her loyalty, her grief, and the particular kind of sadness that comes from loving someone across an impossible divide and never quite getting to the other side. Watching her as an older woman revisit that love, with all the wisdom and weariness of a life lived in its shadow, is deeply affecting.
Samuel is equally well drawn. He is tender, principled, and acutely aware of the precariousness of his position — a Black man in uniform in 1940s Britain, welcomed in some rooms and refused in others, asked to risk everything for freedoms he himself does not yet fully possess. His relationship with Ginny is written with honesty and sensitivity, and the tenderness between them feels completely real.
What genuinely surprised and moved me was how much history this book opened up for me. I was not aware of the significant presence of Black American soldiers in rural Wales during World War II — the communities they built, the relationships they formed, and the profound injustice of their situation both abroad and back home. Norma Curtis handles this history with reverence and specificity, and reading it felt like a discovery. This is the kind of novel that sends you looking for more — more history, more stories, more truth about lives that deserve to be remembered.
A SOLDIER'S GOODBYE is emotional, richly historical, and deeply human. A solid A.
18th June 2026 | romcol@caribsurf.com | romcol1962@gmail.com
