The Dust That Falls from Dreams

July 13, 2015
De Bernieres's latest novel is an immersive, sweeping historical epic focusing on three neighboring families in England: the Pitts, the Pendennises, and the McCoshs. As the family children become close and form a small gang called the Pals, the idyllic Edwardian era comes to a close far too quickly, leading all three families into WWI. The three Pendennis boys all enlist in the English infantry, despite being Americans. Daniel Pitt becomes a French fighter pilot. Two of the McCosh sisters volunteer in hospitals. All are confronted daily with the harsh realities of war. Rosie McCosh is in love with Ashbridge Pendennis, and when he enlists, they become engaged, hoping to ride out the war (which they believe will be short) and marry once it is over. Unfortunately Ash meets a tragically early end, leaving Rosie devastated. When the war is over, everyone is left to pick up the pieces and try to put their lives back together, leading to further depths of entanglement between the three families. The ravages of the war on Europe are depicted in stark relief. De Bernieres (Corelli's Mandolin) manages to quite gracefully capture the evolution from the quiet late 19th century to the horrors of modern "total warfare," and the experiences of his characters are varied and satisfying. Moreover, the space left after the war for the people who survived allows de Bernieres to take an intimate look at their various scars. This lovely tale is both intimate and grand; readers will enjoy every minute of it.

July 1, 2015
Another historical novel from de Bernieres (A Partisan's Daughter, 2008, etc.): the agreeable, albeit predictable saga of an English family transformed by World War I. It begins with the usual scene of prewar tranquility, in this case a 1902 coronation party in suburban London. Mr. and Mrs. McCosh, an investor/inventor and his eccentric wife, contentedly survey their four daughters. Beautiful Rosie, though only 12, already plans to marry the handsome boy next door, Ashbridge Pendennis. Somehow it seems inevitable, as the action jumps ahead 12 years and Ash announces that he's enlisted immediately after becoming engaged to Rosie, that he won't survive and will leave her grieving in a morbidly unhealthy way. Indeed, although a good portion of the book concerns the combat experiences of Ash in the infantry and Daniel Pitt, another London neighbor, in the Royal Flying Corps, its central subject is the adjustments everyone must make afterward. It's not just veterans who miss the sense of purpose wartime service brought; Rosie's sisters, who all did volunteer work, are both enticed and made restless by the expanded vistas for women that open after 1918. Their mother is horrified by this and every other postwar social change, described in the boilerplate passages de Bernieres favors for scene-setting. Daniel waits patiently for Rosie to get over Ash, but that doesn't happen even after they're married. We get pretty tired of mopey Rosie, and although Christabel, Ottilie, and Sophie McCosh are livelier, each is a one-note outline-Christabel loves another woman, Ottilie is serenely mysterious, Sophie adorably misuses esoteric words-rather than a fully fleshed character. The large supporting cast is also sketched in broad strokes as the story moves forward, centered mostly on Rosie and Daniel. Their try for a new start in a new location, coupled with an abrupt ending and a hint in the author's acknowledgments, suggests the McCoshes and kith will be making further appearances. Readable and mildly engaging but lacking fresh insights into very familiar material.

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July 1, 2015
De Bernieres, the author of the acclaimed Corelli's Mandolin (1994), spins a masterful tale that bridges two worlds and delineates the apocalyptic abyss in between. On the eve of WWI, the four McCosh sisters and their neighbors, the Pendennises and the Pitt boys, live an idyllic existence in Kent. As the threat of hostilities looms closer, the carefree days of their youth are revoked and each must face the harsh realities of modern warfare and beyond. Drawn into spiritual, physical, and emotional battles as the war years grind on, dreams are deferred and the future remains uncertain. This heartrending saga of love, loss, and endurance paints a vivid portrait of the steep price paid by an entire generation of young men and women who participated in and endured the Great War.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Patrons will remember this author's blockbuster novel, made into a popular movie, so expect demand for this latest.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)