Genre Fiction
![Ann Napolitano - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_a_ann_napolitano.jpg)
Dear Edward: A Novel
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY • "Make sure you have tissues handy when you read [this] sure-footed tearjerker" (NPR) about a young boy who must learn to go on after surviving tragedy.
Now streaming as an Apple TV+ series starring Connie Britton, written and executive produced by Jason Katims (Friday Night Lights and Parenthood)
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, Parade, LibraryReads
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.
Praise for Dear Edward
"Dear Edward is that rare book that breaks your heart and stitches it back together during a reading experience that leaves you profoundly altered for the better."-Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of Mad Honey
"Will lead you toward something wonderous, something profound."-Kevin Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Now Is Not the Time to Panic
Now streaming as an Apple TV+ series starring Connie Britton, written and executive produced by Jason Katims (Friday Night Lights and Parenthood)
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, Parade, LibraryReads
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.
Praise for Dear Edward
"Dear Edward is that rare book that breaks your heart and stitches it back together during a reading experience that leaves you profoundly altered for the better."-Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of Mad Honey
"Will lead you toward something wonderous, something profound."-Kevin Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Now Is Not the Time to Panic
Editorial Reviews
"A surprisingly uplifting story, full of hope and dry humor, with an underlying, noncloying message about the decency of strangers."-The New York Times Book Review
"A harrowing yet ultimately optimistic story about the sole survivor of a plane crash."-O: The Oprah Magazine
"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."-The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)
"Transportative . . . Make sure you have tissues handy when you read Ann Napolitano's Dear Edward, a sure-footed tearjerker."-NPR
"Exquisite . . . an insightful and moving testament to the indomitability of the human spirit."-People
"Ann Napolitano's new novel is the best book about a young person I've read since Emma Donoghue's Room, and if there's any justice in the world, it's going to be a phenomenon: outstanding storytelling, great writing, absolutely The Real Deal."-John Boyne, bestselling author of The Heart's Invisible Furies
"Dear Edward isn't just a beautiful novel, clear-eyed and compassionate even as it pulls us into difficult terrain. It's an examination of what makes us human, how we survive in this mysterious world, how we take care of each other. It's the kind of book that forces you to trust that the author, who will break your heart, will also lead you toward something wondrous, something profound. After this brilliant novel, I will follow Ann Napolitano to the ends of the earth."-Kevin Wilson, author of Nothing to See Here
"This is a stunning novel of courage and connection in the face of unimaginable loss. It's beautifully written, with characters so intensely alive you will hold your breath as they break your h...
"A harrowing yet ultimately optimistic story about the sole survivor of a plane crash."-O: The Oprah Magazine
"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."-The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)
"Transportative . . . Make sure you have tissues handy when you read Ann Napolitano's Dear Edward, a sure-footed tearjerker."-NPR
"Exquisite . . . an insightful and moving testament to the indomitability of the human spirit."-People
"Ann Napolitano's new novel is the best book about a young person I've read since Emma Donoghue's Room, and if there's any justice in the world, it's going to be a phenomenon: outstanding storytelling, great writing, absolutely The Real Deal."-John Boyne, bestselling author of The Heart's Invisible Furies
"Dear Edward isn't just a beautiful novel, clear-eyed and compassionate even as it pulls us into difficult terrain. It's an examination of what makes us human, how we survive in this mysterious world, how we take care of each other. It's the kind of book that forces you to trust that the author, who will break your heart, will also lead you toward something wondrous, something profound. After this brilliant novel, I will follow Ann Napolitano to the ends of the earth."-Kevin Wilson, author of Nothing to See Here
"This is a stunning novel of courage and connection in the face of unimaginable loss. It's beautifully written, with characters so intensely alive you will hold your breath as they break your h...
Readers Top Reviews
Basha RaizelS Pay
One of my favorite books of all time, this is a story about the human capacity for goodness. Beautiful, complex, real, and profound. Read it!!!
prisrobBasha Raiz
It can take years to learn to deal with memories, good ones are a no brainer, it is the traumatic, the tragic memories that burn into your soul. In this novel we travel with Bruce as he lives out his memories with us. On a day, Bruce and his brother, Jordan, and his mom and dad are flying to California where his mom will start a new job .This is the job of a lifetime, and as they all get on the plane, after Jordan has had his song and dance about going through the Newark Airport’s body scanner, the family is happy, off to a new start. As the flight progresses, they meet some of the 188 passengers and flight attendants, when suddenly over Colorado, the airplane goes down. Bruce, 12, at the time is the only survivor. He had been found still strapped this seat shouting, ‘I am her, I am here,’ After a time in hospital, he goes to a new home of an aunt and uncle he hardly knows. He is ensconced In an old nursery that had never been used. It was uncomfortable, and Bruce was not able to sleep in this room. He struck up a friendship with a girl next door, Shay, and slept in her house until he was a teenager. We are with Bruce throughout this time, his PTSD, his reactions to the loss of his family, particularly! Jordan,, his brother. He lives day to day to day, the best he can. The author has developed a process of present day with Bruce, then back to the passengers on the plane. We learn about their past lives, the gay soldier, the beautiful flight attendant who lived for the significant looks from other people, a woman who remembered past lives. In this manner the characters do come alive, particularly when Bruce receives the hundreds of letters from relatives of the passengers who died. Bruce is their closest memory of the people they loved. All of these memories help Bruce to recover physically from his injuries, but most importantly emotionally. Shay becomes the presence he needs by his side. This is a book of such severe consequences for so many people. The characters are all part of the healing, and they give credence to the back stories and emotions that envelop and overwhelm Bruce at times. Trying to clear his head through this fog, gives Bruce purpose, and it gives us understanding. A timely book for all of us who have suffered anxiety and despair particularly through this time, but also a pathway to the future. Recommended. prisrob 01-06-2020
Jingle57prisrobBa
Dear Edward is an emotional story about a family, a tragedy, a boy, a friend, ups and downs, pain, healing, and love. It’s so wonderfully written and will leave you feeling a bit of sadness and lots of joy. Wow! It’s really great!
Book Club MemberJ
"Dear Edward," by Ann Napolitano, is the poignant story of a 12-year-old boy who became the only survivor of a plane crash. Napolitano got the idea for her novel from two actual plane crashes, but this book is entirely fiction. The chapters alternated in time from the present (after the crash) to the past (time on the flight). Knowing in advance that the people would perish made a difference to me as I read. I tried not to get attached to the characters, but Napolitano made it hard not to embrace their diverse and unique characteristics. I felt a sense of dread and pathos as I witnessed their last moments. Edward's life after the crash is a tough read. He lost both parents and an older brother that he idolized. He went to live with an aunt and uncle, but even that family connection was not enough to compensate for his devastating losses. Mentally and emotionally, he struggled. His aunt and uncle had tried unsuccessfully to have a baby, but a series of miscarriages extinguished their hopes. The only room they had available for Edward on such short notice was furnished as a nursery, which left him recoiling in horror. He never occupied that room, spending each night at the home of a neighbor, where he was allowed to sleep on the floor of the room of a girl named Shay, who was also 12. This arrangement went on for years until high school, which I found to be improbable, but which all the adults condoned because Shay had become Edward's lifeline. Edward was a reluctant celebrity, having been identified as the sole survivor of a major plane crash. Not only did this unwelcomed attention come to him at school, but he also became the unknowing recipient of hundreds of letters from the relatives of people who died on the plane, usually asking if he remembered seeing them or if he would carry out some aspiration that the deceased person had. Edward's uncle hid these letters in a garage, but Edward stumbled upon them and secretly shared them with his best friend Shay. The plot from that point is driven by what Edward decided to do about the letters. Edward enjoyed an unusual amount of freedom, as his aunt and uncle granted him a great deal of latitude, perhaps too much. The story took him through high school graduation and gave a glimpse into how he might decide to spend his future, along with a fortune of insurance money and donations that came his way. While the book is the story of perseverance in the face of overwhelming odds, it left me with a hollow feeling that Edward would never fully recover from the loss of his family.
Meredith SchorrBo
This book is so beautiful and sad. I loved it and all the characters. It will stay with me for a while.
Short Excerpt Teaser
June 12, 2013
7:45 a.m.
Newark Airport is shiny from a recent renovation. There are potted plants at each joint of the security line, to keep passengers from realizing how long they'll have to wait. People prop themselves against walls or sit on suitcases. They all woke up before dawn; they exhale loudly, sputtering with exhaustion.
When the Adler family reaches the front of the line, they load their computers and shoes into trays. Bruce Adler removes his belt, rolls it up, and slots it neatly beside his brown loafers in a gray plastic bin. His sons are messier, throwing sneakers on top of laptops and wallets. Laces hang over the side of their shared tray, and Bruce can't stop himself from tucking the loose strands inside.
The large rectangular sign beside them reads: All wallets, keys, phones, jewelry, electronic devices, computers, tablets, metal objects, shoes, belts, and food must go into the security bins. All drink and contraband must be thrown away.
Bruce and Jane Adler flank their twelve-year-old son, Eddie, as they approach the screening machine. Their fifteen-year-old son, Jordan, hangs back until his family has gone through.
Jordan says to the officer manning the machine: "I want to opt out."
The officer gives him a look. "What'd you say?"
The boy shoves his hands in his pockets and says, "I want to opt out of going through the machine."
The officer yells, apparently to the room at large: "We've got a male O-P-T!"
"Jordan," his father says, from the far side of the tunnel. "What are you doing?"
The boy shrugs. "This is a full-body backscatter, Dad. It's the most dangerous and least effective screening machine on the market. I've read about it and I'm not going through it."
Bruce, who is ten yards away and knows he won't be allowed to go back through the scanner to join his son, shuts his mouth. He doesn't want Jordan to say another word.
"Step to the side, kid," the officer says. "You're holding up traffic."
After the boy has complied, the officer says, "Let me tell you, it's a whole lot easier and more pleasant to go through this machine than to have that guy over there pat you down. Those patdowns are thorough, if you know what I mean."
The boy pushes hair off his forehead. He's grown six inches in the last year and is whippet thin. Like his mother and brother, he has curly hair that grows so quickly he can't keep it in check. His father's hair is short and white. The white arrived when Bruce was twenty-seven, the same year Jordan was born. Bruce likes to point at his head and say to his son, Look what you did to me. The boy is aware that his father is staring intently at him now, as if trying to deliver good sense through the air.
Jordan says, "There are four reasons I'm not going through this machine. Would you like to hear them?"
The security officer looks amused. He's not the only one paying attention to the boy now; the passengers around him are all listening.
"Oh God," Bruce says, under his breath.
Eddie Adler slips his hand into his mother's, for the first time in at least a year. Watching his parents pack for this move from New York to Los Angeles-the Grand Upheaval, his father called it-gave him an upset stomach. He feels his insides grumble now and wonders if there's a bathroom nearby. He says, "We should have stayed with him."
"He'll be okay," Jane says, as much to herself as to her son. Her husband's gaze is fixed on Jordan, but she can't bear to look. Instead, she focuses on the tactile pleasure of her child's hand in hers. She has missed this. So much could be solved, she thinks, if we simply held hands with each other more often.
The officer puffs out his chest. "Hit me, kid."
Jordan raises his fingers, ready to count. "One, I prefer to limit my exposure to radiation. Two, I don't believe this technology prevents terrorism. Three, I'm grossed out that the government wants to take pictures of my balls. And four"-he takes a breath-"I think the pose the person is forced to take inside the machine-hands up, like they're being mugged-is designed to make them feel powerless and degraded."
The TSA agent is no longer smiling. He glances around. He's not sure if this boy is making a fool of him.
Crispin Cox is in a wheelchair parked nearby, waiting for security to swab his chair for explosives. The old man has been stewing about this. Swab his wheelchair for explosives! If he had any spare breath in his lungs at all, he would refuse. Who do these idiots think they are? Who do they think he is? Isn't it bad enough that he has to sit in this chair and travel with a nurse? He growls, "Give the boy his goddamn pat-down."
The old man has been issu...
7:45 a.m.
Newark Airport is shiny from a recent renovation. There are potted plants at each joint of the security line, to keep passengers from realizing how long they'll have to wait. People prop themselves against walls or sit on suitcases. They all woke up before dawn; they exhale loudly, sputtering with exhaustion.
When the Adler family reaches the front of the line, they load their computers and shoes into trays. Bruce Adler removes his belt, rolls it up, and slots it neatly beside his brown loafers in a gray plastic bin. His sons are messier, throwing sneakers on top of laptops and wallets. Laces hang over the side of their shared tray, and Bruce can't stop himself from tucking the loose strands inside.
The large rectangular sign beside them reads: All wallets, keys, phones, jewelry, electronic devices, computers, tablets, metal objects, shoes, belts, and food must go into the security bins. All drink and contraband must be thrown away.
Bruce and Jane Adler flank their twelve-year-old son, Eddie, as they approach the screening machine. Their fifteen-year-old son, Jordan, hangs back until his family has gone through.
Jordan says to the officer manning the machine: "I want to opt out."
The officer gives him a look. "What'd you say?"
The boy shoves his hands in his pockets and says, "I want to opt out of going through the machine."
The officer yells, apparently to the room at large: "We've got a male O-P-T!"
"Jordan," his father says, from the far side of the tunnel. "What are you doing?"
The boy shrugs. "This is a full-body backscatter, Dad. It's the most dangerous and least effective screening machine on the market. I've read about it and I'm not going through it."
Bruce, who is ten yards away and knows he won't be allowed to go back through the scanner to join his son, shuts his mouth. He doesn't want Jordan to say another word.
"Step to the side, kid," the officer says. "You're holding up traffic."
After the boy has complied, the officer says, "Let me tell you, it's a whole lot easier and more pleasant to go through this machine than to have that guy over there pat you down. Those patdowns are thorough, if you know what I mean."
The boy pushes hair off his forehead. He's grown six inches in the last year and is whippet thin. Like his mother and brother, he has curly hair that grows so quickly he can't keep it in check. His father's hair is short and white. The white arrived when Bruce was twenty-seven, the same year Jordan was born. Bruce likes to point at his head and say to his son, Look what you did to me. The boy is aware that his father is staring intently at him now, as if trying to deliver good sense through the air.
Jordan says, "There are four reasons I'm not going through this machine. Would you like to hear them?"
The security officer looks amused. He's not the only one paying attention to the boy now; the passengers around him are all listening.
"Oh God," Bruce says, under his breath.
Eddie Adler slips his hand into his mother's, for the first time in at least a year. Watching his parents pack for this move from New York to Los Angeles-the Grand Upheaval, his father called it-gave him an upset stomach. He feels his insides grumble now and wonders if there's a bathroom nearby. He says, "We should have stayed with him."
"He'll be okay," Jane says, as much to herself as to her son. Her husband's gaze is fixed on Jordan, but she can't bear to look. Instead, she focuses on the tactile pleasure of her child's hand in hers. She has missed this. So much could be solved, she thinks, if we simply held hands with each other more often.
The officer puffs out his chest. "Hit me, kid."
Jordan raises his fingers, ready to count. "One, I prefer to limit my exposure to radiation. Two, I don't believe this technology prevents terrorism. Three, I'm grossed out that the government wants to take pictures of my balls. And four"-he takes a breath-"I think the pose the person is forced to take inside the machine-hands up, like they're being mugged-is designed to make them feel powerless and degraded."
The TSA agent is no longer smiling. He glances around. He's not sure if this boy is making a fool of him.
Crispin Cox is in a wheelchair parked nearby, waiting for security to swab his chair for explosives. The old man has been stewing about this. Swab his wheelchair for explosives! If he had any spare breath in his lungs at all, he would refuse. Who do these idiots think they are? Who do they think he is? Isn't it bad enough that he has to sit in this chair and travel with a nurse? He growls, "Give the boy his goddamn pat-down."
The old man has been issu...
