Rollie Birch returned to his home town of Lumberton, Washington after the Great War in 1919. He has returned as a war hero, but has a difficult position to return to. His wife, Tess, died while he was overseas and now Rollie has a newborn daughter to care for. Rollie dedicates all of his energy to raising Genevieve, deciding to quit the family construction business. Not everyone agrees with Rollie's actions, however. Harry Sorensen, Rollie's former commander, comes home and quickly denigrates Rollie's heroic acts. Kay, Harry's wife, tries to get to the truth of Harry's hatred of Rollie as she notices a change in Harry after returning from the War.
Lonely Are The Brave is a deeply thoughtful novel about societal expectations, honesty and living the life you want. The characters are amazingly created, realistic and easy to identify with. Rollie's situation is very different from the typical WWI story. As a male raising a daughter alone, he is challenged from many different sources. Rollie's story challenges the definition of a man. Kay's character challenges what it is to be a woman at the time. Harry simply wants her to be a figure for his campaign for office, Kay wants her opinions heard and to be an equal partner in his life, eventually deciding to do what is best for herself. I like that the suspense mounted in waves as Rollie and Kay discovered secrets that were kept from them while keeping the focus on the intricacies of the character's lives. The setting was also historically accurate, a small town after WWI where patriotism is at a high, Prohibition was already law in Washington and society has strict expectations for men and women set these characters up for an interesting journey.
This book was received for free in return for an honest review.
Lonely Are The Brave is a deeply thoughtful novel about societal expectations, honesty and living the life you want. The characters are amazingly created, realistic and easy to identify with. Rollie's situation is very different from the typical WWI story. As a male raising a daughter alone, he is challenged from many different sources. Rollie's story challenges the definition of a man. Kay's character challenges what it is to be a woman at the time. Harry simply wants her to be a figure for his campaign for office, Kay wants her opinions heard and to be an equal partner in his life, eventually deciding to do what is best for herself. I like that the suspense mounted in waves as Rollie and Kay discovered secrets that were kept from them while keeping the focus on the intricacies of the character's lives. The setting was also historically accurate, a small town after WWI where patriotism is at a high, Prohibition was already law in Washington and society has strict expectations for men and women set these characters up for an interesting journey.
This book was received for free in return for an honest review.
