Name: The Dust that Falls from Dreams
ISBN: 9780345810403

Louis De Bernières

The Dust that Falls from Dreams

Louis de Bernières

A return to the epic romance, heroism, history and warm and eccentric cast of characters that made CAPTAIN CORELLI'S MANDOLIN such an extraordinary hit (2.5 million copies sold). In the brief golden years before the outbreak of World War I, Rosie McCosh and her three very different sisters are growing up in an eccentric household in Kent, with their neighbours the Pitt boys on one side and the Pendennis boys on the other. But their days of childhood adventure are shadowed by the approach of the conflict that will engulf them on the cusp of adulthood. When the boys end up scattered along the Western Front, Rosie is left confused by her love for two young men - one an infantry soldier and one a flying ace. Can she, and her sisters, build new lives out of the opportunities and devastations that follow the Great War?

The Dust That Falls from Dreams

Lisa Miller

It took a while to get used to the short chapters and change of p.o.v. between a large cast of characters but then it turned into a very satisfying read. I especially liked that WWI had finished halfway through the book so the author spent as much time on the aftermath as the war itself. It also didn't take itself too seriously and there was a wonderful streak of humour throughout.

Louis De Bernieres

From the acclaimed author of "Corelli's Mandolin: " a sumptuous, sweeping, powerfully moving new novel about a British family whose lives and loves are indelibly shaped by the horrors of World War I and the hopes of its aftermath. In the brief golden years of the Edwardian era, Rosie McCosh and her three sisters are growing up in an idyllic household in the countryside south of London. With their neighbors, the two Pitt brothers and the three Pendennis boys, they are "The Pals." But these days of childhood camaraderie and adventure are brought to an abrupt end by the outbreak of World War I, in which some will lose their lives, some their loved ones, some their faith, and all of them their innocence. We follow them through the years of the war--in the trenches, in air battles, in the hospitals where the women serve with as much passion and nearly as much hardship as the men at the front--and its aftermath as the modern world slowly emerges out of the ashes of the old. We come to know intimately this vibrant and eclectic cast of characters, and to see how the connections of their childhood reach deep into their adult lives, the fate of each reverberating in the lives of the others. And at the center is Rosie--in love with one of The Pals and beloved by another--who, in the end, will emerge from tragedy into a profound understanding of what it means to love, not just deeply, but well.