by Helena P. Schrader ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 2023
Sharp research meets vivid storytelling in an absorbing novel of the postwar period.
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American author Schrader’s historical series-starter charts the events preceding the Berlin airlift from a European perspective.
The author’s Bridge to Tomorrow trilogy examines how the Berlin airlift, a colossal operation to counter the Soviet blockade of the German capital, was a pivotal moment between the post–World War II and Cold War eras. This first installment covers the period between late 1947 and June 1948, when the international crisis first began. Royal Air Force Wing Commander Robert Priestman is a British flying ace with a past reputation for “irresponsible aerobatics” and a playboy image. Priestman accepts the new role of station commander at RAF Gatow, Berlin, which will become the world’s busiest airport. He relocates to Germany with his wife, Emily Priestman, who’s also a pilot; she contributed to the war effort by delivering service aircraft. Among other characters headed for Berlin is David Goldman, who, after receiving a sizeable inheritance, is intent on operating an air ambulance business from the city, and RAF Flight Sergeant Kathleen Hart, a war widow and single parent who’s also been assigned to Berlin; she leaves England in the hope of finding love. The characters find the crime-ridden postwar city in ruins, and the threat from the Soviet Sector of Berlin is clear. Priestman must deal with Soviet fighter planes repeatedly harassing RAF aircraft; a tragedy results in an international crisis, and it seems as if another world war could be on the horizon.
Schrader is a sharply descriptive writer who captures the atmosphere and minute details of life in postwar Berlin with photographic precision: “Behind façades shorn of plaster, people existed more than lived. They cooked a little food over a wood-burning stove, crowded around a radio, perhaps, or read by the light of a bulb dangling from the ceiling.” The author’s research is impressive; in her historical notes, for example, she highlights her quest to pin down an accurate date for the construction of Gatow’s concrete runway. The novel ambitiously juggles several major characters, and the author ably handles the tricky task of making each well rounded and psychologically believable. She provides in-depth background information that reveals not only the various players’ pasts, but also their understanding of one another. In a description of the relationship between Priestman and his spouse, for instance, Schrader writes that “he had never been able to talk to her about being a prisoner, about how it made him feel naked, worthless and helpless. He’d certainly never told her about the brutality he’d experienced on recapture.” One minor criticism is that the author spends much of the first half of the novel simply introducing people, which becomes somewhat programmatic. Although this process could have been more smoothly integrated, one can make a case for its necessity, given the trilogy’s vast scope. Overall, this is a smart and compelling read, punctuated by gripping aerial sequences, political tension, and a dash of romance. It will likely have military fiction fans clamoring for the next installment.
Sharp research meets vivid storytelling in an absorbing novel of the postwar period.Pub Date: June 15, 2023
ISBN: 979-8987177006
Page Count: 516
Publisher: Cross Seas Press
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
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New York Times Bestseller
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
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by Colm Tóibín ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 7, 2024
A moving portrait of rueful middle age and the failure to connect.
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New York Times Bestseller
An acclaimed novelist revisits the central characters of his best-known work.
At the end of Brooklyn (2009), Eilis Lacey departed Ireland for the second and final time—headed back to New York and the Italian American husband she had secretly married after first traveling there for work. In her hometown of Enniscorthy, she left behind Jim Farrell, a young man she’d fallen in love with during her visit, and the inevitable gossip about her conduct. Tóibín’s 11th novel introduces readers to Eilis 20 years later, in 1976, still married to Tony Fiorello and living in the titular suburbia with their two teenage children. But Eilis’ seemingly placid existence is disturbed when a stranger confronts her, accusing Tony of having an affair with his wife—now pregnant—and threatening to leave the baby on their doorstep. “She’d known men like this in Ireland,” Tóibín writes. “Should one of them discover that their wife had been unfaithful and was pregnant as a result, they would not have the baby in the house.” This shock sends Eilis back to Enniscorthy for a visit—or perhaps a longer stay. (Eilis’ motives are as inscrutable as ever, even to herself.) She finds the never-married Jim managing his late father’s pub; unbeknownst to Eilis (and the town), he’s become involved with her widowed friend Nancy, who struggles to maintain the family chip shop. Eilis herself appears different to her old friends: “Something had happened to her in America,” Nancy concludes. Although the novel begins with a soap-operatic confrontation—and ends with a dramatic denouement, as Eilis’ fate is determined in a plot twist worthy of Edith Wharton—the author is a master of quiet, restrained prose, calmly observing the mores and mindsets of provincial Ireland, not much changed from the 1950s.
A moving portrait of rueful middle age and the failure to connect.Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9781476785110
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
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