Tell
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- $2.99
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
In the wake of the WWI, the boys are finally coming home in this “gravely beautiful” sequel to the award-winning international bestseller, Deafening (The New York Times).
In the small, insular community of Deseronto, Ontario, two women welcome their husbands home from the Great War. But their joy is mixed with trepidation as they struggle to rebuild their lives. Tress’s husband Kenan is young, shell-shocked, and disfigured. He confines himself indoors, venturing outside only at night to visit the frozen bay where he skated as a boy. Her aunt Maggie, an aspiring singer, has problems of her own. Falling out of love with one man, and drawn intimately close to another, she and her husband Am are navigating an inevitable, ever-widening gulf in their marriage.
As the second decade of the twentieth century draws to a close, the tenuous futures of two couples become increasingly entwined. When startling revelations surface, the secrets of the past are unburdened—secrets that can either heal lives, or tear them apart forever in this “enthralling reminder of the toll the war—and all wars—take, not only on the soldiers but on the families who keep faith on the home front” (The Toronto Star).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This heartening novel from Itani (Deafening) concerns the different tribulations of two households forced to grapple with in the aftermath of World War I. A maimed infantryman having recuperated from his injuries, Kenan Oak returns to his rural hometown of Deseronto, Ontario. He still suffers probably from what is today diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder, and becomes a housebound recluse while his beleaguered wife, Tress, works in her parents hotel kitchen. Although he picks up side work as a bookkeeper, he laments their unhappy, childless marriage. However, all hope isn t lost in this tale of recovery: Kenan renews his boyhood passion for ice skating and corresponds with his old army friend Hugh recuperating from tuberculosis in Britain. Kenan is only able to confide in Tress s middle-aged uncle Am O Neil, an ex-farmer and now apartment maintenance man, who copes with his own strained marriage to Maggie. She works at the library and leans on her friend Zel Jackson for her support. Blessed with a wonderful soprano voice, Maggie loves singing in the choral society directed by the charismatic Lukas Sebastian who, unlike Am, is able to communicate with her. Their romantic affair sets in motion the complications that impact the Oak and O Neil families. Their lives soon take several life-changing turns in Itani s sensitive, well-written novel, full of a cast of strong characters.
