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Final Week: Read-a-long of Stella Bain

This year at War Through the Generations we’ve been hosting a read-a-long specific to one of the 6 wars we are covering.

As this year marks the 100th anniversary of WWI, we’ve decided to select one of our favorite authors — Anita Shreve — to honor the war.

Stella Bain is our selection for August. Synopsis from GoodReads:

When an American woman, Stella Bain, is found suffering from severe shell shock in an exclusive garden in London, surgeon August Bridge and his wife selflessly agree to take her in.

A gesture of goodwill turns into something more as Bridge quickly develops a clinical interest in his house guest. Stella had been working as a nurse’s aide near the front, but she can’t remember anything prior to four months earlier when she was found wounded on a French battlefield.

In a narrative that takes us from London to America and back again, Shreve has created an engrossing and wrenching tale about love and the meaning of memory, set against the haunting backdrop of a war that destroyed an entire generation.

Beware of spoilers.

Discussions will be posted on Friday for the designated chapters. Here’s the reading schedule and discussion dates:

Friday, Aug. 8: Pages 1-70
Friday, Aug. 15: Pages 71-138
Friday, Aug. 22: Pages 139-207
Friday, Aug. 29: Pages 208-end

We hope that you’ll join us for the read-a-long and discussions at War Through the Generations.

Comments

  1. I enjoyed discussing this book!