NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Read with Jenna Book Club Pick as Featured on Today • A “dazzling” novel that “will break your heart and put it back together again” (J. Courtney Sullivan, bestselling author of Saints for All Occasions) about a young boy who must learn to go on after surviving tragedy NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • Parade • LibraryReads • “A reading … Washington Post • Parade • LibraryReads • “A reading experience that leaves you profoundly altered for the better . . . Don’t miss this one.”—Jodi Picoult, bestselling author of Small Great Things and A Spark of Light
What does it mean not just to survive, but to truly live?
One summer morning, twelve-year-old Edward Adler, his beloved older brother, his parents, and 183 other passengers board a flight in Newark headed for Los Angeles. Among them are a Wall Street wunderkind, a young woman coming to terms with an unexpected pregnancy, an injured veteran returning from Afghanistan, a business tycoon, and a free-spirited woman running away from her controlling husband. Halfway across the country, the plane crashes. Edward is the sole survivor.
Edward’s story captures the attention of the nation, but he struggles to find a place in a world without his family. He continues to feel that a part of himself has been left in the sky, forever tied to the plane and all of his fellow passengers. But then he makes an unexpected discovery—one that will lead him to the answers of some of life’s most profound questions: When you’ve lost everything, how do you find the strength to put one foot in front of the other? How do you learn to feel safe again? How do you find meaning in your life?
Dear Edward is at once a transcendent coming-of-age story, a multidimensional portrait of an unforgettable cast of characters, and a breathtaking illustration of all the ways a broken heart learns to love again.
Praise for Dear Edward
“Dear Edward made me think, nod in recognition, care about its characters, and cry, and you can’t ask more of a novel than that.”—Emma Donoghue, New York Times bestselling author of Room
“Weaving past and present into a profoundly beautiful, page-turning story of mystery, loss, and wonder, Dear Edward is a meditation on survival, but more important, it is about carving a life worth living. It is about love and hope and caring for others, and all the transitory moments that bind us together.”—Hannah Tinti, author of The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley and The Good Thief
more
Dear Edward is a novel which made my heart ache. A lot. On June 12, 2013, twelve-year old Eddie Albert boards flight 2977 from Newark to Los Angeles. The family is moving west for a new job for his father, Bruce, and a new life for all of them. The plane crashes in a small town in Colorado. Of 187 passengers, and the crew, Eddie is the sole survivor.
The reader follows Edward as he both mourns the unthinkable losses of his 15 year old brother Jordan and his parents, and tries to make sense of being the only one to live. It is a heavy burden for young shoulders. No longer a child, and yet not mature enough to be considered an adult, Edward doesn’t know where he fits in anymore, or even if he wants to.
When well enough to leave the hospital, Edward is given into the care of his aunt Lacey and uncle John Curtis who live in New Jersey. Edward is lost in himself, rarely talks, or eats, doesn’t react to much. The only comfort he finds is sleeping on the bedroom floor of Shay, the girl who lives next door to his aunt and uncle. She is close to Edward’s age, only two months older, and he feels a connection with her. She gives him his space, yet talks to him and tells it like it is, much in contrast to the wall of silence he receives from people who don’t know what to say.
The novel follows the passengers and crew as calamity approaches, letting us know them in various vignettes. It also follows Edward as he grows and, with Shay at his side, lets himself find out more about what happened the day of the crash, more about his fellow passengers, and through literally thousands of letters sent to him after the crash and kept by his uncle for him, more about those who survived them.
The letters, media coverage, and internet sites devoted to the crash and to the “miracle boy” who survived, stun Edward. Everyone seems to have a message for him, a thought on what he must do, on how he should live his life to fulfill the hopes and dreams of the people who died beside him. It is a troubling time. What does he owe them? What should he do? How can he satisfy them all? Should he even try? How does he get past the point in time that changed so many lives forever?
Author Ann Napolitano writes the novel which was based on a true story with much empathy and finesse. Her characters are complete and rich in every way and they will stay with me for a long time.
Dear Edward is a book about an occurrence that changed time forever into “Before” and “After” for many families. It is also about finding your way back to living, to wanting to take part in life again with all the joy, sorrow and emotions that brings, to opening yourself to what was, what is, and what will be. Edward finds the human spirit is mighty strong, loving, undeniable.
I highly recommend this read to all.
My sincere thanks to NetGalley and The Dial Press for allowing me to read an ARC of this novel in exchange for an unbiased review. All opinions expressed here are my own.
Wow. This is an amazing book…an awakening of sorts.
Young Eddie (soon to become Edward), is the sole survivor of a catastrophic plane crash that kills 191 others, leaving him the only person to make it out alive.
This book shows the reader what it might be like to have your entire world ripped from you, far too soon, in just a split second, and how you are to not only recover physically, but build on a new life all together without your loved ones.
I loved the alternating chapters. To hear Edward’s narrative and then peak into the thoughts and memories of some of the other people that died in the plan was ingenious.
This book was many things: it was a coming of age story, it was a tragedy, a story of gut-wrenching loss, but a story of finding oneself, a story of perseverance and survival, and finally a story of finding your way to love and acceptance.
This was raw, painful, heartbreaking, but yet beautiful and leaves the reader with a feeling of hope, light, and love with the perfect ending.
5/5 stars
It’s a great coming of age story about a boy who loses his family in the same crashed plane where he’s the only survivor.
It’s scary enough for a young boy to change everything he knew, a new house, new school, new friends and new everything that comes with growing up.
It’s a hard read at times and may have some triggers for some readers but it’s very well written and interesting story overall, if not a bit unique in its way.
Imagine being a sole survivor in a plane crash and you are only twelve years old?
Survivor guilt that is heartbreaking for this young boy. How can he move forward when all of his is family has perished?
This is a beautiful novel of his years learning to take “baby” steps forward each day. Painful and uncomfortable for me to read at times.
We also learn exactly how and why this plane crash occurred and the 191 people on board who did not survive felt as they were sitting in those seats on their own last journey.
An amazingly detailed story that really is a book of hope, love, grief and resilience!
Dear Edward by Anna Napolitano a five-star read you can’t miss. This is a deeply moving story and one that will surprise you, Edward’s story will keep you reading and will really keep you reading, some of the other characters stories weren’t so compelling, but that could easily be as we get to see so much more of Edwards story, so it’s easier to understand his character, or could be that we know the other passengers don’t make it, I don’t know which. As you watch Edward grow it takes this story from sad about the crash to affirming and bright.