About the Book:

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.

 

 

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My Review:

 

Exquisitely written and narrated. Many thoughts on this book but ultimately it was five stars for me.

Can you imagine being the sole survivor of a plane crash? And being only 12 years old? I thought this would be an overwhelmingly sad book, but it is not at all. In fact it is quite uplifting in the end.

‘Dear Edward’ is at its heart and soul a coming of age story about loss and healing, love and moving on. Edward not only lost his entire family in a shocking plane crash but he also suffered traumatic injuries that make his emotion and physical recovery very slow and arduous. The author meticulously researched this book, and I was so relieved to read the scenes involving the plane – this isn’t a grisly tale at all but more of a character study of those passengers on the plane with Edward and what their lives might teach him as he struggles for normalcy.

“There was no reason for what happened to you, Eddie. You could have died; you just didn’t. It was dumb luck. Nobody chose you for anything. Which means, truly, that you can do anything.”

I loved the alternating stories between the passengers on the doomed flight and Edward’s current-day life. The narrator did a stunning job of handling all the multiple voices. The tension builds slowly and the ending was quite beautiful. I applaud the author for taking a true-life story and crafting a sensitive and emotional story that often has touches of lightness. All Edward wants is to have a normal middle-school experience with normal relationships but he feels quite bewildered by his sudden worldwide fame and publicity. Was he meant to have some kind of extraordinary life? Is he a walking miracle?

“Figure out what your gift is, Edward Adler, and then blow that shit up.”

If you think this is not a book to read during these stressful times, you would be wrong! It is touching, tragic, happy, sweet and in the end, hopeful. Edward is a survivor and I think that is a story that everyone needs to hear right now. I highly recommend this sweet and emotional story.

“You are special. You are meant to survive, to go on and do great things.”