Book Review | NEWS OF OUR LOVED ONES by Abigail DeWitt

NEWS OF OUR LOVED ONES

by Abigail DeWitt | Publication: October 2, 2018
HarperCollins | Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating:★★★★

"...handsomely imagined, with engaging characters and stirring events."

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Set in France and America, News of Our Loved Ones is a haunting and intimate examination of love and loss, beauty and the cost of survival, witnessed through two generations of one French family, whose lives are all touched by the tragic events surrounding the D-Day bombings in Normandy.
What if your family’s fate could be traced back to one indelible summer?

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The book club agreed to read historical fiction for the month of September. I decided to read just a couple of books, but, then, this copy came to me fortuitously. I received an email from the publisher, advising me to follow a link. I asked myself, “Do I really need to read another war story, after getting off from the American Civil War?”

Well, I’m glad I did. I don’t regret following that link.

This is a World War II story, revealing the lives of the Delasalle family and those who have crossed their paths before and after the D-Day Landing at the port city of Caen, in France’s Normandy region. It showed many ways war takes its toll and how death can leave irreversible effects, tearing families apart. Remaining family members revisit memories; retell events, desperately trying to chase the ripples of their tragedy down to the next generations. The guilt of being alive, while many have perished, followed them. They acutely cling to every life tangible to keep them afloat.

NEWS OF OUR LOVED ONES is handsomely imagined, with engaging characters and stirring events. Ms. DeWitt managed to bring together a generational family story from individual narratives, creating a mosaic of love, death, estrangement, resilience, and remembrance.

This surprising book is perfect for historical fiction lovers.

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About the Author:
Abigail DeWitt is the author of three novels: LILI (WW Norton), DOGS (Lorimer Press), and NEWS OF OUR LOVED ONES (forthcoming from Harper in 2018). Her short fiction has appeared in Five Points, Witness, the Alaska Quarterly Review, the Carolina Quarterly, and elsewhere. She has been cited in BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES, nominated for a Pushcart, and has received grants and fellowships from the North Carolina Arts Council, the Tyrone Guthrie Center, the McColl Center for the Arts, and the Michener Society.

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