RaveThe Washington PostBoianjiu’s prose has a flat, harsh glare that can seem benumbing at first but evokes the deadening that comes of constant war. Part of this impressive book’s power is that it manages to re-create and rupture that numbness, war’s tedium and the damage it does to memory, intimacy, thought and affection ... Among the book’s subtle insights is that the greatest intimacy forged by war is with those one fights ... The novel repeatedly changes point of view — from first-person singular, to first-person plural, to third — as if trying to get at the truth of the conflict. Characters’ voices are sometimes indistinguishable, requiring clumsy devices to signal shifts, but the sensibilities are revealing in their range ... Boianjiu’s bracing honesty is tonic ... A fierce and beautiful portrait of the damage done by war.
Jennifer Robson
PositiveThe Washington PostCompelling and informative ... Robson is skilled at creating drama; the braided narrative shifts among three protagonists ... An Oxford-trained historian, Robson has a fine eye for detail ... At its best, the novel is a gripping portrait of the aftermath of a war too often romanticized in American fiction and film; the privations of global conflict and its lingering weight — in bombed-out streets, in coupons for necessities — make vivid both the hardship and unequal distribution of suffering. The comfortable remain comfortable even in uncomfortable times ... Occasionally plot twists come out of nowhere (serendipitous meetings, sudden villainy) ... stumbles in its glancing treatment of the Holocaust, which risks becoming narrative window-dressing ... For all that, Robson succeeds in creating a riveting drama of female friendship, of lives fully lived despite unbearable loss, and of the steadfast effort required to bring forth beauty after surviving war.
