After working their way through the sprawling metropolis of LA during the 1992 race riots, the next selection for the Eason Book Club, picked by singer Brian Kennedy, is The Dust that Falls from Dreams by Louis de Bernières.
British writer de Bernières became a publishing sensation in 1994 when his popular third novel Captain Corelli’s Mandolin was published in 11 languages, selling more than 1.5m copies.
The Dust that Falls from Dreams, like Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, is a period piece set during wartime, albeit with the action taking place during the first World War. While King Edward VII’s sits on the British throne, 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 war that will engulf them on the cusp of adulthood.
When the boys end up scattered along the Western Front, Rosie faces the challenges of life for those left behind. Confused by her love for two young men - one an infantry soldier and one a flying ace - she has to navigate her way through extraordinary times. Can she, and her sisters, build new lives out of the opportunities and devastations that follow the Great War?
Louis de Bernières’ magnificent and moving novel follows the lives of an unforgettable cast of characters as they strike out to seek what happiness can be built from the ruins of the old world.
The Eason Book Club on The Pat Kenny Show takes place on Thursday, July 23rd. The other recommended reads by the Eason Book Club for July are: Only Ever Yours by Louise O’Neill, The Night Stages by Jane Urquhart, and A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. You can listen back to last week's club discussing All Involved here.
