In a couple of cases, I wondered if the audio narrator accidently said the same thing twice and it didn't get edited out.
I think the author was trying to be poetic, but instead it was annoying. Strange repetition of words and phrases that just didn’t work. Most historical fiction gives more of a nod to the vernacular of the time. In general, descriptions of death, dying, and all that relates to it seemed to go on forever. Then there's a long scene where 2 of the characters are kissing in the embalming room as a dead guy lies on the table behind them that is called “beautiful.” Yuck. One scene where one of the daughters is standing in the embalming room, curious as to what happens there seemed to go on forever. I realize that part of the story happens during the Spanish flu of 1918, but the obsession with death and undertaking (the family owns a mortuary) was a bit much. Amid the tragedy and challenges, they learn what they cannot live without - and what they are willing to do about it.Īs Bright as Heaven is the compelling story of a mother and her daughters who find themselves in a harsh world not of their making, which will either crush their resolve to survive or purify it. But even as they lose loved ones, they take in a baby orphaned by the disease who becomes their single source of hope.
As the pandemic claims more than 12,000 victims in their adopted city, they find their lives left with a world that looks nothing like the one they knew. Into this bustling town came Pauline Bright and her husband, filled with hope that they could now give their three daughters - Evelyn, Maggie, and Willa - a chance at a better life.īut just months after they arrive, the Spanish Flu reaches the shores of America. Even as its young men went off to fight in the Great War, there were opportunities for a fresh start on its cobblestone streets. In 1918, Philadelphia was a city teeming with promise. From the acclaimed author of The Last Year of the War comes a novel set during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, telling the story of a family reborn through loss and love.
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