The Heroes’ Welcome: A Novel
World War I was hard enough on the soldiers who watched their comrades die in front of them, around them, and in their own arms. But life after the war could be even crueler in painfully subtle ways: “No one wanted to remind anyone of anything. As though anyone had forgotten.”
After Riley Purefoy returns from the war, he marries the love of his life, Nadine. But the scars of the war lay deep below his facial ones, making their marriage tense and communication difficult. Things don’t fare any easier for his commanding officer, Peter, and his estranged wife or neglected child. Even Rose, with high hopes of becoming a doctor, must contend with her doubts: Can she bear to walk away from the shattered pieces of those she loves?
Louisa Young’s The Heroes’ Welcome depicts life after war in its true and raw form: bitter, brutal, and broken. After merely surviving for so long, it’s simply too hard for soldiers and their families to learn once again how to live while being haunted by their loss, and to accept that there is indeed a future to plan for and a present that increasingly requires their participation. It is a deeply moving novel that carefully chronicles the inner turmoil of soldiers in the aftermath of a war.
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Star Count | 4/5 |
Format | Trade |
Page Count | 272 pages |
Publisher | Harper Perennial |
Publish Date | 2015-Mar-10 |
ISBN | 9780062354495 |
Bookshop.org | Buy this Book |
Issue | May 2015 |
Category | Historical Fiction |
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