Dear Edward
Score: 5/5 Bookmarks
Thank God Dear Edward by Ann Neapolitan wasn’t longer than 336 pages, I would have run out of tears entirely. I haven’t cried this much over a book since A Little Life.
This book will make you squeeze your loved ones tighter and wonder at the ways we’re all connected, in little ways and big. It will make you think about the impact we have on those around us, and it will make you feel. It will make you feel deeply, so be prepared.
Parts of this book made me break down more than others:
“The moving company hired to transport the Adler family’s belongings across the country stopped at a motel in Omaha the night after the crash. They emptied the truck in the parking lot, pulled every single box onto the asphalt. They opened the one that read EDDIE’S ROOM. They fished the stuffed elephant out of the box and mailed it to the Denver hospital with a note that said: We thought the boy might want this.”
Just the thought of a couple of big, burly moving guys going through all that effort so a boy could have his toy elephant nearly broke me in two. My own little girl sleeps with a toy called Mr Elephant, and were she in such a life-altering situation I hope someone would make the same kind gesture towards her.
Or just Eddie’s realization that what happened didn’t just happen to him:
“He meets her gaze, and there’s something new there. Edward used to think that what had happened had happened only to him, but he knows Shay has been changed, and he knows the writers of the letters have been changed too, so the ripple effects feel possibly infinite.”
I suggest having a box of tissues close at hand while reading. What I do not advise is reading this book on a turbulent flight to Colorado, as I did. Really, don’t do that.
This book is actually based on a true story. Nine-year-old Ruben Van Assouw, was the sole survivor of a plane crash in 2010 which crashed in the desert outside Tripoli. All 103 of the other passengers on board died, including his parents and brother.
Dear Edward comes out on January 6, so make sure you add this one to your 2020 reading list.
Inspired by a true story of one child’s incredible survival--riveting, uplifting, unforgettable.
In the face of tragedy, what does it take to find joy?
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 is a Wall Street wunderkind, a young woman coming to terms with an unexpected pregnancy, an injured vet returning from Afghanistan, a septuagenarian business tycoon, and a free-spirited woman running away from her controlling husband. And then, tragically, the plane crashes. Edward is the sole survivor.
Edward's story captures the attention of the nation, but he struggles to find a place for himself in a world without his family. He continues to feel that a piece of him 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 find yourself? How do you discover your purpose? What does it mean not just to survive, but to truly live?
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.
