JULY 2014 - AudioFile
In crisply enunciated tones, Dan Stevens narrates this love story of two couples from different classes as they navigate life during WWI. Working-class Riley Purefoy, educated above his station, falls in love with the posh, artistic Nadine Waveney. The other couple appears when Purefoy meets Peter Locke in France when both enlist, Locke having left his wife, Julia, with his cousin, Rose. Stevens delivers the details of war and life at home with a relentlessness that echoes the bombing, gunfire, and death of war. The action moves from Ypres and Paris to London and the surrounding countryside without pause or respite. Listeners will be drawn into a story of hope, love, and life after the couple’s world is torn apart by war. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
From the Publisher
Every once in a while comes a novel that generates its own success, simply by being loved. Louisa Young’s My Dear I Wanted to Tell You inspires the kind of devotion among its readers not seen since David Nicholls’ One Day.” — The Times (London)
“A moving tale of men and women tested to their limits by World War I. . . . My Dear I Wanted to Tell You exhibits a determined faith in human beings’ ability to heal—if not entirely, then at least sufficiently—from the wounds inflicted by war.” — Wendy Smith, Washington Post
“A month after reading this book it is still on my mind, its characters as clear and their dilemmas still playing themselves out in my mind. I’d thought there was nothing more for fiction to do with the Great War, but Louisa Young has discovered the startlingly modern questions of that great catastrophe.” — Linda Grant, author of The Clothes on Their Backs and When I Lived in Modern Times
“This novel is a triumph.” — Elizabeth Jane Howard, author of the Cazelet Chronicles
“At the heart of My Dear I Wanted To Tell You are an irresistible hero and heroine: the passionate, ambitious, strong-minded Riley and Nadine. How their lives are transformed—literally and figuratively—by World War I makes for a surprisingly suspenseful and tender novel. I was enraptured by these pages. ” — Margot Livesey, author of The House on Fortune Street
“As terrifying as it is brilliant, My Dear I Wanted to Tell You is not a book you pick up lightly. It takes you down one of the darkest passages of human experience and does not ease its grip until you emerge, profoundly enriched, on the other side. I was spellbound from page one and remain utterly enthralled. With her exquisite, nimble style, Louisa Young has re-created a world at war and given life to the silent faces I thought I knew so well. How wrong I was.” — Anne Fortier, author of Juliet
“A testament to the frailty and heart of mankind, Louisa Young’s My Dear I Wanted to Tell You vividly paints an intimate portrait of life on the home front and battlefields during the First World War.” — Cathy Marie Buchanan, author of The Day the Falls Stood Still
“The finest Great War novel since Susan Hill’s Strange Meeting. . . . [Young’s] book encompasses themes of shifting perceptions of class; of the lingering, insistent consolation of art; of incorrigible wiliness; of unflinching duty and endurance; of the need to maintain a sense of identity when everything militates against it, and of selfless generosity, optimism and intense passion. Her research is meticulous, sometimes harrowing. The atmosphere she creates is often appalling, always compelling, and her narrative drive is powerful enough to keep you up all night.” — Sue Gaisford, Independent (UK)
“With echoes of The English Patient, Atonement, and a touch of Ford Maddox Ford’s The Good Soldier, Louisa Young’s adult debut novel is haunting and mesmerizing. . . . The dark and gritty battle scenes contrasted with the pining love letters sent from the front lines of battle blend perfectly together to give an accurate and honest portrayal of life during wartime” — Bronwyn Miller, BookReporter.com
“An epic love story, a grim war chronicle, a class study, a heartwarming tale of overcoming—London native Young’s page-turner has Masterpiece Classic written all over it. . . . Young brings a modern, frill-free sensibility to the material. There’s considerably less sentimentality than you usually encounter in such stories. Young, a graceful and light-handed writer, offers a powerful account of war, and her detailed descriptions of the experimental reconstructive surgery add a compelling element to the story. A literate, moving wartime tale in which love triumphs over despair.” — Kirkus Reviews
The Times (London)
Every once in a while comes a novel that generates its own success, simply by being loved. Louisa Young’s My Dear I Wanted to Tell You inspires the kind of devotion among its readers not seen since David Nicholls’ One Day.
JULY 2014 - AudioFile
In crisply enunciated tones, Dan Stevens narrates this love story of two couples from different classes as they navigate life during WWI. Working-class Riley Purefoy, educated above his station, falls in love with the posh, artistic Nadine Waveney. The other couple appears when Purefoy meets Peter Locke in France when both enlist, Locke having left his wife, Julia, with his cousin, Rose. Stevens delivers the details of war and life at home with a relentlessness that echoes the bombing, gunfire, and death of war. The action moves from Ypres and Paris to London and the surrounding countryside without pause or respite. Listeners will be drawn into a story of hope, love, and life after the couple’s world is torn apart by war. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
