* A Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Book *
* Finalist for the Center for Fiction's Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize *
*Finalist for the Grub Street Book Prize in Fiction*
“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
A stunningfirst novel and a vivid exploration of the way tragedies are
reported, remembered, and commemorated, based on a real-life WWII tragedy
On a March night in 1943, on the steps of a London tube
station, 173 people die in a crowd seeking shelter from another air raid. When
the devastated neighborhood demands a report, the job falls to magistrate
Laurence Dunne. As Dunne
investigates, he finds the truth to be precarious, even damaging. He struggles
to complete his task without causing hurt. Yet when he is forced to reflect
several decades later, Dunne must consider whether he chose the right course. The
Report is a compelling commentary on the way all tragedies are remembered.
“Meticulous in its detail and devastating in its quiet
precision, The Report is, like the
pamphlet that inspired it, short, heartbreaking and nothing less than perfect.”
—NEWSDAY
“The Report is
unflinching even as it is generous. It’s also a page-turner, skillfully
deploying a new fact or a different perspective about the disaster, propelling
the narrative. As our curiosity mounts about the truth of what really happened
that night, Kane keeps alive the question of how much truth any person—or any
society—can handle.”
—OSCAR VILLALON, NPR.ORG, “Books We Like”
“[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
“[A] riveting novel. . . . The author has captured the
feel of the war period exquisitely. The constraints, uncertainties, and fears
are vivid. . . . I highly recommend this novel.”
—Historical
Novels Review, Editors’ Choice
“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
“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 and one of the New Yorker’s “Top 20 Under 40”
