Dear Edward (Napolitano)

Dear Edward 
Ann Napolitano, 2020
Random House
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781984854780


Summary
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. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
Ann Napolitano is the author of the novels A Good Hard Look (2011), Within Arm’s Reach (2004), and Dear Edward (2020). She is also the associate editor of One Story literary magazine.

Napolitano received an MFA from New York University. She has taught fiction writing at Brooklyn College’s MFA program, New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies, and Gotham Writers Workshop. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children. (From the publisher.)

Book Reviews
[A] haunting novel that's a masterful study in suspense, grief and survival…. Napolitano's fearless examination of what took place models a way forward for all of us. She takes care not to sensationalize, presenting even the most harrowing scenes in graceful, understated prose, and gives us a powerful book about living a meaningful life during the most difficult of times.
Angie Kim - New York Times Book Review


There’s something brutal about killing a planeload of people and then introducing a handful of them and killing them all over again. But the cruelty of this aspect of the novel’s structure is countered by the astonishing tenderness of other sections.… Napolitano captures the subtle shades of Edward’s spirit like the earliest intimations of dawn… [and] in Napolitano’s gentle handling, it’s persistently lovely.… [Dear Edward is] one of the most touching stories you’re likely to read in the new year.
Ron Charles - Washington Post


Make sure you have tissues handy when you read Ann Napolitano's Dear Edward, a sure-footed tearjerker about the miraculous—but troubled—survival of a 12-year-old boy…. [M]oving…. Dear Edward is in part a tale of survivor guilt, which is fueled by the weight of oppressive, often bizarre expectations on the miracle boy, especially from the families of victims who want him to fulfill their loved ones' dreams and plans.
Heller McAlpin - NPR
 

Exquisite… an insightful and moving testament to the indomitability of the human spirit.
People


A sort of willful tearjerker…. The first chapter, an ode to the mundane routines of air travel, contains real bite and an authenticity the novel loses hold of; subsequent airborne revelations (She’s pregnant! He’s gay!) feel indulgently mawkish. But Edward’s path to finding purpose and connection is realized with an affecting, quiet empathy. You’ll sob to the end.
Entertainment Weekly


The potent prose brings readers close to the complex emotional and psychological fallout after tragedy.… [B]ut by the end, readers will feel a comforting sense of solace. Napolitano’s depiction of the nuances of post-trauma experiences is fearless, compassionate, and insightful.
Publishers Weekly


[P]enetrating…. [W]hat makes this narrative so effective is its alternating between the ordinary events unfolding on the flight and the aftermath of the crash, which keeps the sense of loss and the significance of what has happened fresh in readers' minds. —Barbara Hoffert
Library Journal


(Starred review) With its expert pacing and picture-perfect final page, Dear Edward is a wondrous read. It is a skillful and satisfying examination of not only what it means to survive, but of what it means to truly live.
Booklist


For some readers, Napolitano's premise will be too dark to bear…[with] our inability to protect ourselves or our children from the worst-case scenario….  Well-written and insightful but so heartbreaking that it raises the question of what a reader is looking for in fiction.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
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