Chapter 37: Summary, Analysis, and Study Guide

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

The chapter opens in the aftermath of a night of relentless bombing in London. The all-clear does not sound until five in the morning, and Emma and Margaret have stayed awake through the entire attack, listening to the explosions, the RAF fighters, and the anti-aircraft guns. Though others in the shelter manage to sleep, the two women emerge gritty-eyed and exhausted. They count themselves lucky: the East End has been struck again, and the casualties are believed to be even heavier than before.

Back at the boardinghouse, the two women help each other prepare for the day—Margaret's hair twisted into a chignon, cosmetics applied to make Emma look less worn out—before heading to the Booklover's Library. There, the manageress delivers startling news: London has been deemed unsafe, and she hands them train tickets back to Nottingham. They pack quickly and make their way to a train station crowded with what seems like most of London attempting to flee the city. After waiting for some time and grabbing tea and margarine sandwiches, they board the train. As it pulls out of the station, an air raid siren wails behind them, and Margaret's face shows her panic in the blue blackout light. Exhaustion eventually wins, and both women sleep through part of the journey, waking to find themselves back in Nottingham.

Emma arrives home at midnight, disappointed to find no letters from Olivia. Only a little more than a week has passed since her daughter went to Chester, and the post is slow, but the absence still stings. She reflects on how recently the bombing in Nottingham occurred and how close she had been to having Olivia at her side.

The next day at work, Margaret arrives looking her usual bright self, and Irene greets them with grave concern, asking whether they were near the area that was hit. They confirm they were, and Margaret produces a newspaper reporting that two hospitals were also targeted in the bombing. Miss Crane interrupts, ordering them back to work, and Irene protests on their behalf, but Miss Crane is unmoved. Margaret mutters that Miss Crane is in a mood, and Irene reveals that Miss Crane has been in a state ever since they were gone—she even left a book misshelved, which Irene notes was not her doing.

That evening, Mrs. Pickering stops Emma with a letter from Olivia. She explains she tried to telephone the London boardinghouse but was told Emma had already left. Emma takes the letter upstairs and reads it with a pained exhale: Olivia is not happy. She has been pretending to be Anne of Green Gables, but finds her grandparents to be like two hard Marillas who never soften—a description Emma recognizes as accurate. Emma does notice, however, that Olivia's vocabulary and grammar have improved, and she smiles at the influence of books on her daughter. But the request to come home cannot be granted. After what Emma witnessed in London, she cannot risk the same horrors befalling Nottingham. She writes back explaining Olivia must remain with her grandparents until England is safe again—though she wonders when that might ever be.

The days slide by in a blur. Emma works at the canteen at Victoria Station, watching trains carry soldiers, and the library sees an influx of patrons now that people are scared into their homes at night. One day, Emma enters the Bespoke Room to find Irene bent over a box of books, her shoulders trembling. Emma tries to back away to give her friend privacy but accidentally knocks a book off a shelf. Irene spins around, and Emma asks if she is all right. Irene explains she is crying over the SS City of Benares—a ship carrying children being evacuated to Canada for safety that was attacked by a German U-boat. Nearly all the children aboard were killed. Irene's cousin had almost put her daughter on that ship but changed her mind at the last moment. Emma's thoughts turn to the parents who made the agonizing sacrifice to send their children across the ocean, only to have them killed en route.

Margaret enters, and then Miss Crane shoves into the room, accusing them of holing up like a knitting circle instead of working. Emma has had enough. She steps toward Miss Crane and tells her that while the lending library is of grave concern to her, there is so much more going on in the world than this little corner of their existence. Miss Crane recoils, then reveals the source of her bitterness: Emma has her daughter, the canteen, so many moving pieces in her life. They all do—families, children, friends, volunteer work. Irene cautiously offers that Miss Crane could volunteer with them, but Miss Crane threatens to bring Miss Bainbridge in and shoves out the door.

In the silence that follows, the pieces finally fall into place for Emma. Miss Crane is not simply mean. She is jealous—dreadfully so—and that is a far more complicated emotion to handle.

Key Events

The all-clear sounds at five in the morning after a night of heavy bombing; the East End is struck again with heavy casualties
The manageress gives Emma and Margaret train tickets back to Nottingham, declaring London unsafe
They take a crowded train out of the city as an air raid siren wails behind them
Emma arrives home to find no letters from Olivia
At work, Emma and Margaret describe the bombing to Irene, including the targeting of two hospitals
Miss Crane orders them back to work and is revealed to have been in a bad mood since their departure
Emma receives a letter from Olivia, who is unhappy with her grandparents; Emma insists she must stay until England is safe
Emma finds Irene crying over the SS City of Benares disaster, in which nearly all evacuated children aboard were killed
Emma confronts Miss Crane, who reveals she is jealous of the fuller lives of her colleagues
Emma realizes Miss Crane's cruelty stems from jealousy, not malice

Character Development

Emma continues to grow as a protective mother and an increasingly assertive woman. Her decision to keep Olivia in Chester, despite her daughter's unhappiness, shows the painful weight of parental sacrifice—she chooses safety over comfort, even at the cost of her own longing. Her confrontation with Miss Crane marks a turning point: she moves from passive endurance of the manageress's tyranny to direct, principled pushback. And her final realization—that Miss Crane is jealous rather than mean—demonstrates a new capacity for empathy and nuance in reading other people.

Miss Crane is revealed in a new light. Her harshness is reframed as the bitterness of a woman who has no family, no friends, no volunteer work—none of the moving pieces that give her colleagues' lives texture and meaning. The chapter does not excuse her behavior, but it complicates it, inviting the reader to see her as isolated and envious rather than simply cruel.

Irene shows vulnerability and grief, crying over the children lost on the SS City of Benares. Her offer to let Miss Crane volunteer with them is a small but meaningful gesture of kindness toward someone who has been hostile to her.

Margaret continues to serve as Emma's steady companion, using humor to defuse tension and showing her own fear during the train journey.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Parental sacrifice for child safety is the chapter's central theme. Emma's refusal to bring Olivia home, despite her daughter's unhappiness, mirrors the decision of the parents who sent their children on the SS City of Benares. The tragedy of that ship underscores the terrible gamble that wartime parenting requires—and the devastating consequences when the gamble fails.

The civilian cost of war is made visceral through the bombing of the East End, the targeting of hospitals, and the loss of children on an evacuation ship. The chapter emphasizes that the war's toll falls not only on soldiers but on ordinary people making impossible choices.

Jealousy and isolation are explored through Miss Crane. Her outburst reveals that her cruelty is rooted in envy of the full lives of her colleagues—a reminder that wartime hardship takes emotional as well as physical forms.

Books as comfort and influence appears in Olivia's letter, where she pretends to be Anne of Green Gables and her improved vocabulary shows the effect of reading. Books provide a thread of connection between mother and daughter across the distance of evacuation.

The library as wartime refuge continues to be a motif, with patrons flocking to the Booklover's Library now that they are scared into their homes at night.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter deepens the novel's emotional stakes on multiple fronts. It brings Emma and Margaret back to Nottingham, closing the London episode and returning the story to its central setting. It advances the mother-daughter conflict, showing Olivia's unhappiness in Chester and Emma's agonizing choice to keep her there. The SS City of Benares disaster injects a note of real historical tragedy, reminding readers of the actual costs of wartime evacuation. And the revelation about Miss Crane adds complexity to a character who might otherwise have remained a simple antagonist, enriching the novel's portrait of how war isolates and embitters people. Emma's confrontation with Miss Crane also marks a significant step in her own development, as she finds her voice and begins to see the humanity in even her most difficult colleague.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Emma refuse to bring Olivia home from Chester, even though Olivia is unhappy there?

Emma's decision is rooted in what she witnessed in London. Having survived the bombing of the East End and seen the targeting of hospitals, she cannot bring herself to expose Olivia to the same danger in Nottingham. The chapter makes clear that this is a painful choice—she longs for her daughter—but she prioritizes Olivia's physical safety over her emotional comfort, a sacrifice that echoes the decisions of the parents who sent their children on the SS City of Benares.

2. What does the SS City of Benares disaster reveal about the risks of wartime evacuation?

The disaster shows that even well-intentioned efforts to protect children could end in tragedy. The parents who sent their children to Canada made the same kind of agonizing sacrifice Emma is making by keeping Olivia in Chester—they gave up proximity to their children for the sake of safety. The torpedoing of the ship, killing nearly all the children aboard, demonstrates that no choice was truly safe during the war, and it deepens Emma's own anxiety about the decisions she is making for Olivia.

3. How does Emma's understanding of Miss Crane change by the end of the chapter?

Emma initially sees Miss Crane as simply mean and tyrannical. But after Miss Crane's outburst—in which she reveals her jealousy of the fuller lives of her colleagues, with their families, children, friends, and volunteer work—Emma realizes that Miss Crane's cruelty is rooted in isolation and envy. This reframing makes Miss Crane a more sympathetic and complicated figure, and it shows Emma's growing ability to understand the people around her.