No. 4 Imperial Lane
Jonathan Weisman
2015, 341 pages
Fiction
American college student David Heller stays after his study abroad classes end, working as an assistant to Hans Bromwell, a quadriplegic. David gets to know Elizabeth, Hans’s sister, and Cristina, his niece. The novel is part eye-opening historical fiction – David observes the social upheavel of 1980s England and Elizabeth talks to him about her marriage to a Portuguese doctor posted “to win the hearts and minds” of those living in African colonies as they fought for independence in the 1970s.
It’s also partly just an evocative, emotionally resonant story of young people realizing they live in the world as it is, and not as they wish it could be. Weismann brings the stories of the Bromwells and of David together, writing with a clear eye for detail but no unnecessary flourishes about relationships and grief. A complex debut novel from a seasoned reporter.
Deb Baker
Concord Public Library
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