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
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Dear Edward is that rare book that breaks your heart and stitches it back together during a reading experience that leaves you profoundly altered for the better. It’s about the infinitesimal difference between being a victim and being a survivor, between living and being alive. Don’t miss this one.
This book was not what I expected. I didn’t know if I could connect with a 12 yo boy who is the lone survivor of a plane crash, but turns out, I can. A touching tale of survival and renewal. Really good.
Despite the sad premise – the story is about a young boy who is the sole survivor of an airplane crash – this novel is strangely comforting and brilliantly told. Orphaned by the crash and losing a beloved older brother as well, Edward is thrust upon a journey to recover from this tremendous loss, and not only recover but reclaim and re-embrace his life and the world that is left to him – largely still a beautiful one. I loved this book…
After a series of disappointments, it was a joy to read Dear Edward. The story isn’t an easy one – it’s about a boy who is the sole survivor of a jet crash – and yet I couldn’t put the book down. Napolitano’s writing is beautiful. She manages to make you care about every single character. I’m not embarrassed to say my heart broke for some of them and their unrealized dreams.
Ann Napolitano’s new novel is the best book about a young person I’ve read since Emma Donoghue’s Room, and if there’s any justice in the world, it’s going to be a phenomenon: outstanding storytelling, great writing, absolutely The Real Deal.
I found this novel to be brilliantly and originally structured. What would typically be the climax, a plane crash that kills everyone on board except Edward, a twelve-year-old boy who was traveling with his parents and beloved older brother, occurs very early in the novel. The author quickly moves into a dual timeline; Edward’s trauma and painful, realistically-portrayed physical and emotional adjustment (I hesitate to use the word recovery here) in the glare of media and public attention to the “Miracle Boy,” and, in alternating chapters, a look back at what happened on the plane in the time between takeoff and the crash. In those chapters, Napolitano gives us the stories of certain of the passengers, each of whom Edward remembers. His emotional recovery will begin when he is finally able to connect with some of their relatives and with Shay, the neighbor girl who lives next door to the aunt and uncle who are his only remaining family and with whom he goes to live after release from the hospital.
A tender, sensitively written and ultimately beautiful novel of survival that gives the reader reason to praise the human spirit.
This story is wonderfully written.
Edward Adler is the sole survivor of a plane crash which he lost his whole family in at 12 years old.
This is a heart wrenching and emotional story.
Its beautiful and poetic. It shows how a 12 year old gets over the loss of his family and his journey to get to him to that point.
If you like stories about loss and second chances then give this a try
This is my first 5 star read of 2020 and it is a great one! So many of my Goodreads friends were raving about this book and now I can see why.
The blurb tells a lot of the outline of this story. A plane en route from Newark to Los Angeles crashes, killing everyone on board except for 12 year old Edward Adler. I have found from doing some research that the author based this story on a real plane crash which occurred in 2010, it was traveling from South Africa to London when it crashed killing everyone except for one 9 year old boy. This isn’t a story about that crash but the author stated that it was this event which held her imagination for a long time and she knew that she had to write this story.
The novel travels back and forth in time between what was happening during the flight and Edward’s life afterward. The prose flows smoothly and I found both timelines equally interesting.
Fortunately for Edward he had an aunt, Lacey, and uncle John who cared very deeply for Edward. In the beginning Edward felt the most connection with Lacey because she lost her sister in the flight. Though never able to have a child of their own, Lacey and John play an integral part in helping to heal Edward and help him to carry on with his life.
It’s unimaginable to think of waking up in a hospital, having lost your entire family. He was also physically injured. The most dominant injury, to one of his legs, took many weeks in the hospital and many, many months of therapy for his body to become whole again. Of course the mind and heart are more difficult to heal and Edward was helped by many others in the novel. He becomes incredibly close to Shay, his next door neighbor, who is his age and they eventually form an unbreakable bond.
He has a wonderful psychologist, Mike, who seems to know how to gently steer Edward into finding ways to heal himself. The principal at his school asks Edward to help him care for his beloved ferns which he surrounds himself with in his school office. The adjustment to school was particularly difficult for Edward, not only because of his notoriety, but also because he had been home schooled for his entire life.
Without going into more of the plot I can tell you that this is a wonderful story that you will find yourself immersed in. The characters, along with the ones mentioned above, are very well developed and an interesting collection of people. On the plane there is a soldier on his way home, a pregnant single woman who is hoping her boyfriend will propose, a dying tycoon and a free spirited woman who is fleeing her present husband in the hopes of starting a new life in California.
At a point in the story Edward and Shay come across a finding which will come to help heal Edward in many, many ways.
The novel was heartbreaking in many ways but it was also filled with so many kind people that I was left feeling very hopeful in the end. Without divulging anything further I will say that it was one of the most satisfying endings that I have read in a very long time.
I highly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys a great story with wonderful characters and a premise which will give you much to think about and ponder.
I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through Edelweiss.
“…I felt like you were saving me in the same moment that I was saving you.”
I don’t quite know how I feel about this book. It was not what I was expecting, which was more of a thriller type story. But that is my fault and I can’t rate it lower because of that. The synopsis of the book and reviews from other readers were pretty clear that this is more of a literary tale than a thriller. I just didn’t pay enough attention.
I almost quit reading after finishing about the first 25% of the book. I was bored and depressed.
The story focused on the Adler family – mom, dad, older brother, and younger brother Eddie. They are moving from New York City to Lo s Angeles because of the mom’s job. They leave from Newark Airport heading west and the fully packed plane crashes in a northern Colorado field, leaving 191 people dead and one survivor, 12 year-old Eddie.
This is a book about loss and grief, not only of Eddie but of all the surviving friends and family of the dead. The book does focus on Eddie (who calls himself Edward after the crash), his aunt and uncle who take him in, and Shay, the girl next door who is the same age as Edward.
I really enjoyed about the last third of the book, which to me focused more on hope and healing. I wouldn’t read this book again but it definitely made me think ‘what if’ many times throughout the story.’
I received this book from Random House through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an review.
This is a stunning novel of courage and connection in the face of unimaginable loss. It’s beautifully written, with characters so intensely alive you will hold your breath as they break your heart — an extraordinary read.
I loved Dear Edward so, so much. It made me laugh and weep. So many times I had to stop after reading a paragraph to acknowledge the beauty of Ann Napolitano’s writing. In Edward, his friend Shay, and the passengers on the airplane, Napolitano offers unforgettable characters, people you know you will miss after you’ve turned the book’s last page. Magnificent!
I preface this review with an observation. I am a private pilot, authorized to operate a single-engine aircraft as pilot-in-command. And yet, I teeter on the edge of terror whenever I board a commercial aircraft. I know how everything works. I recognize and know the origin of each odd sound that emanates from this improbable flying aluminum cylinder, and I appreciate the meteorological conditions that affects each flight. In my mind, I know that flying is safe, but it is a single negative experience, on a flight over 20 years ago, where passengers were momentarily pinned to the ceiling of said aluminum cylinder, that causes my heartbeat to rise each time I buckle my seatbelt.
Why do I share this? Because I can relate, in a small and respectful way, to the plight of Eddie Adler in this novel. Other reviewers have created a summary of this book that does it complete justice. Reading it is like having your life torn apart into tiny pieces before the author and these characters help you to find a way of putting them back together again.
Each and every character in this book (Eddie, Jordan, Bruce, John, Lacey, Shay, Besa, Benjamin, Florida, Linda, Veronica… the list goes on and on) struggles with the same singular thing: control. How does one exercise internal willpower to effect a positive change on oneself and the people around him or her? Especially when the circumstances resist our every noble effort and we fool ourselves into believing that time is an infinite commodity.
While the story itself was simply anguishing at times, it was having knowledge as a reader that the characters themselves did not yet know about that created a compelling narrative and perspective. The author crafted a diverse set of stories from every conceivable vantage point (gender, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, age) and brought them together in a cohesive way that helped me appreciate, only after turning the last page, how that singular struggle, control, affects us all, no matter where we are in life.
I return to the beginning of this review, which is admittedly beginning to feel more like a personal essay, but I offer that any book which makes you think and appreciate things at this deep level is one worthy of reading. I love being a pilot but not a passenger. In the end, I wonder if that irony stems from the same thing that each character struggles with in this novel: control. Or the perception of it.
It is not what happens to us that matters. It is how we respond to what happens to us that has the greatest impact on our lives and the people around us. And that is the beautiful message serving as the foundation of this impactful story which has new dreams and motivation taking flight.
Edward is the sole survivor of a cross country airline flight. His parents, brother, all the other passengers and crew have died. Author Ann Napolitano uses flashbacks to introduce readers to Edward’s family and some of the passengers and crew members of the doomed flight as we follow Edward from age twelve to eighteen and see how he deals with his grief and the growing relationship with his Aunt Lacey, Uncle John and neighbor girl and friend Shay. When he reaches the age of fifteen, his brother Jordan’s age, Shay and he discover a cache of letters from the families and friends of the people on his flight. His uncle had hidden them, fearing for Edward’s mental health. Somehow these letters begin his true healing. This was an intense read.
Intriguing, unlike anything else I’ve ever read, heart-wrenching, deeply perceptive, and the writing is beautiful.
I loved the characters in this novel. I didn’t want the book to end.
Moving, tender, full of laughter and crying. Dear Edward is ultimately a book about hope, about unforgettable characters who are so intensely alive, they teach us something about how to live. Profound.
Life throws us lemons, but what kind of lemonade do we make? tart or sweet.
Thoroughly enjoyed the characters in this book and the storyline itself
It was difficult for me to follow the story line at first, but when I learned it, I enjoyed the diversity of the characters presented. The story sometimes got loset in the switching around in the time-line of this book.
This is a remarkable tale of deep grief and healing. A don’t miss read.