Report - Softcover

Jessica Francis Kane

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1846272793 ISBN 13: 9781846272790

Publisher: Portobello Books, 2011

Synopsis

It is an early spring evening in 1943 when the air-raid sirens wail out over the East End of London. From every corner of Bethnal Green, people emerge from pubs, cinemas and houses, and set off for the shelter of the tube station. But at the entrance steps, something goes badly wrong, the crowd panics, and 173 people are crushed to death.When an enquiry is called for, it falls to the local magistrate, Laurence Dunne, to find out what happened during those few, fatally confused, minutes. But as Dunne gathers testimony from the guilt-stricken warden of the shelter, the priest struggling to bring comfort to his congregation, and the grieving mother who has lost her youngest daughter, the picture grows ever murkier. The more questions Dunne asks, the more difficult it becomes to disentangle truth from rumour - and to decide just how much truth the damaged community can actually bear. It is only decades later, when the case is re-opened by one of the children who survived, that the facts can finally be brought to light...

About this title

About the Author

JESSICA FRANCIS KANE is author of an acclaimed story collection, Bending Heaven (Chatto, 2002). Her work has appeared in a number of US publications, including McSweeney's, The Missouri Review, and Michigan Quarterly Review. She lives in New York with her husband and two children. www.jessicafranciskane.com

Review

PRAISE FOR" THE REPORT" "[Kane] moves deftly among perspectives on the [Bethnal Green] catastrophe: We eavesdrop on war-battered townsfolk, the tardy policeman, the overburdened priest, the devastated shelter-chief who feels responsible. Kane's command of period detail is marvelous. . . . A deft, vivid first novel."--"Kirkus Reviews" "Kane skillfully reimagines the empathetic [Laurence] Dunne as he interprets the confessions and accusations of a community crushed by loss and guilt. . . . Meticulous historical detail and vivid descriptions of hunkered-down and rationed East Enders add a marvelous texture." --"Publishers Weekly" "The Report is a graceful and dignified look at a single event that quickly becomes something so much more expansive: a kaleidoscopic examination of crowds, of disasters, of reverberations and reckoning. I was absolutely riveted." --Anthony Doerr, author of "Memory Wall" and "The Shell Collector" "I began reading this story hoping it would aim my judgment at some one person who had made the fatal mistake. But "The Report "cracks that hope and replaces it--as only the bravest novels can do--with a vivid exploration of the events themselves in all their disquieting tangles. This book shows us that the single sin for which judgment hopes is a lie. The truth is not one misstep but a horde of them, hidden in a tunnel that this novel brilliantly excavates." --Salvatore Scibona, author of "The End "" """"An absorbing, thought-provoking first novel about a terrible civilian tragedy during wartime, "The Report" manages the delicate literary feat of being both a probing historical inquiry into a disaster, and a moving, multi-faceted portrait of a community under extreme duress. Jessica Francis Kane's authorial control of her material is impressive; the book's moral complexities linger long after the book is finished. A memorable debut."--John Burnham Schwartz, author of "The Commoner" and "Reservation Road" "Elegantly wr

About this edition

• Publisher: Portobello Books
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1846272793
• ISBN 13: 9781846272790
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256