Wake

by Anna Hope

Five Days in November, 1920:

As the body of the Unknown Soldier makes its way home from the fields of Northern France, three women are dealing with loss in their own way: Hettie, who dances for sixpence a waltz at the Hammersmith Palais; Evelyn, who toils at a job in the pensions office, and Ada, a housewife who is beset by visions of her dead son. One day a young man comes to her door. He carries with him a wartime mystery that will bind these women together and will both mend and tear their hearts.

A portrait of three intertwining lives caught at the faultline between empire and modernity, Wake captures the beginnings of a new era, and the day the mood of the nation changed for ever

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, World War I, War, Audiobook, British Literature

306 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 11, 2014

About the author

Anna Hope is an English writer and actress from Manchester. She is perhaps best known for her Doctor Who role of Novice Hame. She was educated at Wadham College, Oxford, The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London, and Birkbeck College, London.

Anna's powerful first novel, WAKE, sold to Transworld Publishers in a seven-way auction. Set over the course of five days in 1920, WAKE weaves the stories of three women around the journey of the Unknown Soldier, from its excavation in Northern France to Armistice Day at Westminster Abbey. US rights were pre-empted by Susan Kamil at Random House. The book will be published in Doubleday hardback in early 2014.

- excerpted from Wikipedia and Felicity Bryan Associates Literary Agency

Reviews

[Elyse Walters · Rating 4 out of 5]

Post WWI. Two years after the Armistice.
We are told three separate stories that brings us to the end story of "The Unknown Soldier", ( a soldier coming from France)
The first three stories center around three English women, ( Hettie, Evelyn, and Ada), who are grieving and traumatized... for the men they love (son, lover, brother), dealing with their aftermath since returning home....or not returning home at all.

Well researched- well written - a look at how women's lives are changed forever
when they are the ones left behind...when their loved ones go off to war.

I thought about the soldiers- the themes of war - the grief and sadness - the horrors of war for everyone.

I wanted to read another Anna Hope book after "The Ballroom". In both books -everything is there: worthy topics to write about - well researched - well written - yet.....although I liked this book better than "The Ballroom", I just find something flat in both books. The pacing is a little uneven - slow in parts - then ends abruptly.
Most... I'd love to see more character development in her books. I'd like to genuinely 'feel' more.

3.5. It's still worth reading!!!

[Dem · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wake by Anna Hope.

On completion of this novel by Anna Hope I came to realise what a wonderful title WAKE really is and what it means to the story.

Wake / Werk
1) Emerge or cause to emerge from sleep
2) Ritual for the dead
3) Consequence or Aftermath

This novel is the story of three women in London in November 1920 coping and living in the aftermath of war as the city awaits the arrival of the unknown Soldier from France to his final resting place.
This is a quiet book but tells a very emotional and real story. I knew little about the Unknown Soldier Story and I enjoyed reading this very well researched Novel that Anna Hope has written. While the story of Ada, Evelyn and Hettie is fiction the pain and suffering these women of war who were left behind is extremely well written in this novel. I emotionally connected with Ada in this story as this is how life must be for mothers all over the world when a son goes to war and time has not changed that ache and never will while wars are a way of our world.

I'll remember you he thinks, and as the gun carriage with its coffin and its dented helmet passes him by, he closes his eyes.
Nothing will bring them back. Not the words of comfortable men. Not the words of politicians. Or the platitudes of paid poets.

This is one of those books that in its own quiet way it leaves its mark on the reader. A wonderful and emotional story of Five Days in November 1920. I learned something new by reading this book and while I have read a lot of books about the War this one will stay in my memory for its emotional impact.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

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Throughout a period of five days, as the unknown soldier makes its way to Westminster, we follow the lives of three women who have been affected by the war. Ava, my favorite, a mother who struggles with guilt over the death of her son in the war and wants only a body to bury, to know the why and where. Evelyn, who lost her fiancé in the war and also has a brother who was an officer and has returned, but is not the same. Evelyn has become an embittered woman, she feels life has passed he3r by. Lastly Hettie, the youngest, a naïve woman who is trying to make her own life but has a shell shocked brother at home so can not work.

Extremely well done, the book provides glimpses of the war, the ultimate sacrifice of all involved, directly or indirectly, and the journey finding the unknown soldier and those who make the body ready for internment. The title as noted has many meanings all applicable in this poignant novel.

On Armistice Day the bones are buried in Westminster Abbey and the empty Cenotaph War Memorial is dedicated. Although this is a place that families who do not know where their sons were buried can visit, as a sarcastic Eleanor notes, "Is this supposed to make it all okay?"

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why can't he just move on? Not just him. All of them. All of the ex-soldiers, standing, begging in the street, boards tied around their necks. All of them reminding you of something that you want to forget. It went on long enough. She grew up under it, like a great squatting thing, leaching all the color and joy from life.
The war's over. Why can't all of them just bloody well move on?

Oh my heart! Once I started this well researched account of a post WWI historical, I was glued to the couch. Anna Hope gives us three women of various ages that have all been shaped by the war; for better or for worse. Hettie, Ada, and Evelyn are just three representations of the many women that dealt with the loss of a brother, lover, friend etc. Through their stories we also see how unprepared people were for the wounded especially those who bore the mental scars of war.

The situations and dialogues are unflinching, raw, ugly and show the ramifications of war on a people. Woven into this story is the approaching Armistice Day of 1920 as the people of England welcome the arrival of the Unknown Warrior. It is a subject largely ignored today and often forgetten that back when memories of the battles were still fresh and people remember the men whose names were etched in the marble, that remembrance ceremonies left many people uncertain. Mothers like Ada felt again that absolute heartache of the son buried somewhere in "France or Belgium." Young girls like Hettie wondered about the names their brothers would call out in the middle of the night. Women like Evelyn would congratulate friends and family on their marriages and babies and think about the lover who never came home.


Definitely a book worth attention! Can you believe I picked up the hardcover for $3!!

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I read a book on a kindle and keep trying to turn for the next page not realising/accepting that it has ended, I truly know that I have been swept up in the writing and the characters. Wake has been that type of book for me.

Wake is the story of women and men left with emotional, personal loss after WWI and takes place during the few days leading up to the planned internment of the Unknown Soldier in London on the 2 year anniversary of the Great War armistice. The city is full of unemployed men, returned soldiers struggling to support their families. It's full of widows as well as young women who never had an opportunity to marry their loves and are now becoming "spinsters". It's full of parents, especially mothers, grieving the loss of their thousands of sons. And it's full of former soldiers who aren't well able to live with what they have seen or done in the fields of Europe.

One such young unmarried woman is Evelyn, dozing on a train, dreaming of the man she lost.


Even if the dream were real, if he could reassemble
himself from his thousand scattered parts; if she could
open the door and find him standing before her, whole;
he would be horrified: She will be thirty next month.
She has betrayed him. She has become old. (loc 393)


And Hettie thinks about her brother, who sleeps in the next room.


Thanks, he can manage. Please and thank you, and
sometimes, if you're lucky and you ask him a direct
question, yes or no. Anything else is a push. Ever since
he came back from France. He speaks enough at night,
though. Cries and shouts out the names of men in his
sleep. She can hear him through the walls. (loc 813)


And Ada, the son she knows she lost though she has never learned how.


All yesterday evening, she and Jack circled each
other, and it seemed to her as though that boy were
there still, in the room between them, as well as their
son, Michael, his name echoing in the space, the first
time it has been spoken in more than three years.
(loc 894)


These and more intersecting lives show the horrors of war, the horror of survival without loved ones and with some memories that won't end.

On this early Armistice Day, there are also glimmers of hope as some few seem to begin to make a personal peace with the past and with the living around them. I do recommend this book highly.




I received an ecopy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley for the purpose of review.

[☮Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

1920 London, when they have decided to bring home from France an Unknown Soldier to honor on Armistice Day. The three female characters all have their own losses and stories to tell about England’s participation in World War One France and their own paths to recovery. Evelyn’s brother Ed came home, not with any obvious physical changes, but changed nonetheless. She can’t understand why they are not as close as they once were, but then she has turned bitter and hateful also from her personal experiences. Ada has lost her son Michael but still thinks about nothing else. That fact is impacting her marriage more so than Michael’s death has. She believes Michael could be alive, because she has never been told what exactly happened and where he was buried--many soldiers were simply buried where they fell or not at all. Hettie is a dancer at a dance hall, where men with missing legs and arms come to meet girls and dance with her for sixpence. Her brother is also very changed since the war and cannot find a job, which is widespread.
There is a common thread between the women, and I became immersed in the last 90 pages or so while it all came out. These people have secrets they have not wanted to talk about before, but the upcoming Unknown Soldier event causes many of them to open up. It felt to me like both a cleansing experience and sheer agony, as some of the events are horrifying. Heartbreaking. Mind-bending. Events one might be better off forgetting, if only they could.
The background story of how the Unknown Soldier idea came about and how he was chosen was very interesting, as was the mixed reactions to it. The underlying themes of this story will have me contemplating it for a long time. I’m thinking that the title is quite fitting. The writing is excellent.

ARC edition won from Random House Publishing.

[Cleopatra Pullen · Rating 5 out of 5]

For those who fought in World War I there were two likely outcomes: they would die or they would be damaged, for the women who loved them life was less certain.

Anna Hope has written a beautiful book following the five days prior to the internment of The Unknown Warrior at the Cenotaph. Each chapter is a day and each of those days follows the journey of the coffin from France to Britain for the ceremony.

The depth of descriptions of each the lives of the three women featured is outstanding, Ada, 45, whose son never returned from the war. Evelyn almost 30 and lives with a friend, another spinster and goes to work each day in the Pension Exchange interviewing the wounded and Hettie who lives with her mother and shell-shocked brother Fred who is employed as a dancer at The Hammersmith Palais de Danse. As the days go on the more we learn about these poor lost women and the men who surround them.

The book could be considered a little confusing to begin with as the women are introduced with no real link between them, all are unhappy and yearning for something better. This is a book that leaves you in no doubt that the two short years since the war ended has not healed the wounds inflicted upon the nation. All three women reveal more of their backstory as the book goes on. I am a fan of this kind of writing where the details are revealed layer by layer and our knowledge of the character grows throughout the book.

For me this was a beautiful, if incredibly moving read with all the historical details appearing authentic. I received this book from the publishers Random House UK, ahead of the publication date of 16 January 2014, in return for this honest review, something I am extremely grateful for as this book is one of those that will stay with me for a long time.

To read a longer version of this review please visit cleopatralovesbooks.wordpress.com

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have no doubt that Wake is going to be included in my Top Ten books of 2014, I know that it's only January, but this is a book that has had a huge effect on me. The writing is sublime, but the story is one of horror and shame, and of ordinary people whose lives were left devastated by what was supposed to be 'the war to end all wars.'


Told over just five days and ending on Armistice Day - November 11 1920, Wake is a portrait of the lives of three women; Hettie, Evelyn and Ada. Each of these women bear the scars of the the great war, and each of them are trying to deal with life in London that has changed forever. As the reader learns about the women, we are also following the journey home of the Unknown Warrior - an unnamed solider, taken from the trenches of France and being brought home to rest in London.

As we enter 2014, a hundred years on from the beginning of World War I, it is only to be expected that there will be many books published this year to commemorate the event. Wake is one of those, but does not focus on the war years themselves. Wake looks at the lives left behind, the women who waved goodbye to their sons, fathers, brothers and lovers, some of them never welcomed them home again. Some of them welcomed home a changed man, a man who would never speak of his experiences, a man who will never be able to support his family again, a man who was left crushed and broken by what he saw in France.

Hettie spends her days at the Palais, selling dances with strangers for sixpence a day, and dreaming of bigger and brighter places. Evelyn punishes herself by working in the pensions office, every day seeing the aftermath of war as bruised and broken men queue up for assistance. Ada sees her dead son Michael everywhere, but struggles to speak to her husband. Although at first these three woman appear to be completely separate, it becomes clear that they are linked together by events that took place many miles away on the battlefields and in the trenches.

Wake is powerful and evocative, it is a tender but at the same time, brutal look at the aftermath of war. Anna Hope's writing flows with such ease, her use of prose and descriptions are beautiful and haunting

[Diane Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

The setting is the 5 days before the burial of the unknown warrior in London in 1920, 2 years after the war ends. Hettie is a 19 year old dancer for hire who is hoping the future will find her. Evelyn is a 30 year old whose fiance was killed in the war, and her bitterness is eating her alive. Ada's son was killed in 1917, and she sees his ghost around every corner. Each of these women share a bond that they are not aware of as they try to find some sort of hope and ability to move beyond the grief and despair that has taken over their lives. Just as the body moves from a field in France to a crypt in London, the book tells of their journey from pain to acceptance, and the story of an entire nation that has come together to grieve.

This is a first novel of devastating beauty. The author took me inside the heads of each of these women and let me feel their emotions, along with the experiences and fear and horror of the men on the battlefield. The more I read of The Great War, the more anger I feel for the incredible waste of it all. As one of the characters in this book exclaims: "England didn't win this war, and Germany wouldn't have won it either. War wins, war always wins."

Incredible story, incredible writing, I would give it 6 stars if I could.

[Chrissie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Consider the title--Wake. The dictionary definition of this word reads:
1) To emerge or cause to emerge from sleep.
2) Ritual for the dead.
3) Consequence or aftermath.
All three describe the book well. The central focus of this book is the aftermath of the First World War, its consequences in the years that followed not only for those who fought but also those who remained at home.

The setting is London during the five days, November 7th through November 11th, 1920, when the casket for the Unknown Soldier was interned in Westminster on the second anniversary of the Great War Armistice.

Day be day, we follow events in the lives of three women—a young woman of nineteen (Hettie), another of twenty-nine (Evelyn) and the last, a woman in her late forties (Ada). The women are not acquainted with each other and are at different stages in their relationships with men. They did not fight, but for all of them their lives were changed by the war. With fathers, brothers, sons and prospective lovers altered, the women were too.

Since the story progresses day by day, one might think it is simple to follow, but it is not. The three different women, each with their separate acquaintances and family, are flipped between in a haphazard fashion. No warning is given when the story switches from one woman’s life to another’s. Secondly, characters are not introduced. Thirdly, pronouns are used rather than names. “Who is she? Who is he?” I kept asking. A paragraph will start with someone doing something, but we are not told clearly who. Only after lines of description is this finally revealed; this becomes wasted information. There are many, many characters. You must sort them into which woman’s life they belong. There are numerous flashbacks too. The beginning is infuriatingly confusing.

We are given bits of a puzzle; it is our job to first sort them and then in the next step fit them together, to understand how the women’s lives interconnect. I assume this is meant to be fun, but it is not what I am looking for in a novel. I do not want to spend time figuring out who is being spoken of; I want to spend time understanding the characters themselves. This explains why I cannot give the book more stars. The technique employed does not fit me.

After a third of the novel, after finally having made sense of who was who and having an inkling of how the women’s lives might be connected, could I relax and focus on the story itself and its characters.

The prose, the wording, I do like. The feel of a situation, a pervading atmosphere, is well drawn. Great dialogues—the dialogues match the characters speaking.

I do feel that by book’s end I had come to know the three women’s individual personality. I empathized and felt for all three of them. The purpose of the book though, is to unravel how the women’s lives intersected. This interests me less.

The audiobook is very well narrated by the author. Most authors cannot do this, but Anna Hope is the exception. Her words are clear and easy to follow. She emphasizes the appropriate words and pauses in the correct places, but I do wish she had in some way made it clear when the story switched form one woman ‘s life to another’s.

********************

The Ballroom 4 stars
Wake 3 stars

[Misfit · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Wake: 1) Emerge or cause to emerge from sleep 2) Ritual for the dead 3) Consequence or aftermath."

The basics: it's 1920 and focuses on the lives of three women impacted by The Great War and the preparations for the burial of the Unknown Soldier. I think the book blurb and other reviews cover the individual stories enough, and I don't care to rehash it again. Besides, 24 hours after finishing it, I feel like I'm the one who has wakened from a dream and their stories are fading as quick as any dream I've ever had (hint: that's pretty darned quick).

I see from other reviews that this story and the characters had a stronger impact than it did for me, so once again I find myself in the minority. Perhaps it was the use of present-tense (admittedly not a favorite of mine), but I didn't feel any connection with the characters, and frankly the POV switched so frequently and without much notice that I was lost and had a hard time keeping track of who was who. Don't know if it will make the final cut, but the author lost me for good with a totally unnecessary and gratuitous Rear-Window like scene around page 138, and it was never tied back in with the rest of the women's lives. Ewwwww.

I did enjoy the sections highlighting the preparations and journey of the Unknown Soldier, and thought the present tense worked well there, and I can't help but wonder how much more impact the story might have had if the women's story had been told with a third person narrative. Tastes vary, I know a lot of readers do like present tense, I'm just not one of them. If this had been a library book, I'd have closed the book after about 50 pages and moved on, but I did finish and found the big tie-in to be just...underwhelming and forgettable. YMMV.

[Patrice Hoffman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anna Hope's Wake is a touching and moving account of the affects of war on men and women alike. The book opens by defining what the word wake means:
(1) Emerge or cause to emerge from sleep
(2) Ritual for the dead
(3) Consequence or aftermath

Each definition can be used in one way or another to describe the characters Ada, Evelyn, and Hattie as we watch their stories unfold as the unidentified body of a World War I soldier is brought home to be buried. It is the two-year anniversary of Armistice Day and the excitement, fear, and dread of what it means brings each women on paths that are only separated by a few men.

Ada is the mother of a young soldier named Michael. She mourns his death and walks around seeing his face in every young man that she sees on the streets. She is in a sort of dead sleep. She doesn't even see that she is a fraction of the person she once was. All she can accept is the guilt she feels for allowing her young son to go to war.

Evelyn works for a government that has long stopped caring for their veterans, meaning she works where stipends are to be provided to injured (or out of work) soldiers. She too is in a rut having lost her only love to war. Her brother, Edward, served in the army as a captain and has shown a clear difference since coming home from war. At one point they were so close but he seems much more distant. The truth is far worse than she knows. They both wander in the consequence of their lives after war.

The third woman, Hattie, is young and works as a dancer. She is paid to dance with men whenever they pay her boss. She shares those earnings with a volatile mother, and mute brother. He's barely spoken since the war. Hattie is unaware of the trauma he's been through and yearns for her brother to be whole again.

The characters in Wake can each define their lives in the before and after of war. This is the way that many can identify their lives. I had a friend who served in Iraq. She was 20 when she left. A vibrant, loving girl, unafraid of what was in store for her. She returned with a serious drug problem, a son, and only a few years to live. I identify with these men and women wholly, and I'm nothing more than a witness... a mere bystander.

Although the novel is written about a horrific time in history, Anna Hope manages to write poetically, vividly, and clearly. Wake doesn't read like a debut which is an awesome feat for any author coming out the gate. Even when I had to stop reading to take care of my own personal life, and ironically, plan my father's wake, the moment I picked it back up, I was once more gripped in the lives of each character. I couldn't wait to see how their stories tied into each other. And ohhhhh did they...

Overall, Wake is a beautifully written debut novel that fans of historic fiction will need to read. It's not a super sappy women's only novel that gets tiring as it describes one flighty woman after another but rather a journey for emerging from sleep. I loved this novel and hope that Hope (no pun intended) writes more like it.

Copy provided by Random House via a Goodreads Giveaway

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Firstly, how could I resist a novel written by the actress who played Dr Who's Novice Hame?!

A quiet, wise and sensitive lament for lost opportunities and the tortures of hope.

I so wanted to love this. I really, really did. It had so much going for it: the writing is both charming and uncompromising in its simplicity; the connectivity is clever and, for the most part, appropriate; it’s clearly been thoroughly researched and the choice of title is exquisitely perfect... but don't fret, I'll save you the torment of rattling off the three definitions of 'wake' and cut straight to the chase.

In essence, Wake is stylistically faultless. The fragile position of women as members of society, of history, and as noncombatants is powerfully evoked. The different attitudes towards the future are encapsulated perfectly, both the anticipation of the heady '20s and the distrust of the jingiostic politicans and generals who endorsed the Great War. But for me, that doesn’t quite compensate for the fact that the novel was simply too insubstantial in other facets.

It seems as though Hope was relying heavily on the historical context to render the novel emotionally compelling rather than investing in plot or character development. The mystery is lukewarm at best and although it claims to connect all three women, it really only concerns two. I must give credit where it is due: Hope gives a voice to the ordinary woman of the early 20th century, lurking in that corner of neglected history. It’s a perspective we don’t see often, especially as it concerns the aftermath of the war instead of the duration. But the backstories of the trio just felt a bit… samey. Ada, Evelyn and Hettie are colourless on a personal level. To put it more finely: they’re scenarios I’ve heard before, with little to define them. Each woman represents her generation rather than her own personal story - it’s like they were plucked from an archive: a mother, a lover, two sisters, each respectively associated with a man who has died, suffers from shell shock or has returned home unscathed. I understand that this was the harsh reality for so many, but it also was in Hope’s power to make her characters themselves more compelling in order to keep them relatively ordinary whilst also cranking up the authority of their stories.

I can appreciate that an exhilarating read is definitely not what Hope was trying to achieve. Wake's sensibility and elegance make it a valuable read about grief and closure - it just left no lasting impression for me.

[Liz Barnsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Coming January 2014 from Randomhouse/ Transworld

Thank you kindly to the author and publisher for the unexpected pleasure of a copy of this book in the post.



Wake: 1) Emerge or cause to emerge from sleep 2) Ritual for the dead 3) Consequence or aftermath.

The lives of three women are braided together, their stories gathering tremendous power as the ties that bind them become clear, and the body of the unknown soldier moves closer and closer to its final resting place.

Right well the first thing to say is I read this book in 4 hours – I started it on Saturday morning and by lunchtime I was done, such was the power of this novel – it wasnt that I couldnt put it down it was more that I didnt even consider doing so…

This is subtle, compelling and heart wrenching storytelling and I am not going to give much away – suffice to say this is a story of the life changing effects of war – we follow three women over five days against the backdrop of the effects of WW1 and the journey home of the unknown soldier. It is at turns addictive, fascinating, wonderful and emotional and will draw you in slowly but surely until you feel you are right alongside the characters.

Until lately I have never read much historical fiction – at the moment I am discovering some wonderful examples of this and wonder to myself why I have ignored it in the past. This book as much as any other has told me that I need to find more of it, although its doubtful that any other (with the possible exception of the one I’m reading right now) will touch my heart in the way that this one did.

Storytelling art. A canvass in words. Beautifully written and exceptionally absorbing. I am undone.

Happy Reading Folks!

[littleprettybooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

20/20

Le chagrin des vivants c’est la difficile reconstruction de tout un pays, de tout un peuple. C’est les ravages de la guerre dans tous les foyers, dans tous les coeurs. C’est les étapes progressives par lesquelles chacun va passer pour petit à petit retourner à la vie, sans jamais oublier, sans avoir bien souvent de réponse, mais en acceptant malgré tout que la vie continue. Un roman sublime.

Ma chronique : https://myprettybooks.wordpress.com/2...

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wake by Anna Hope is a novel set in the aftermath of World War I, intertwining the stories of three women who were affected by the war: Hettie, Evelyn, and Ada. All three women had men in their lives who were either killed, injured or emotionally affected by the war. As they all attempt to move on with their lives, it is obvious that though the war may be over, its effects will last for a very long time.

There were moments when I thought this could be a really good novel. At times, pieces of each woman's story would draw me in and keep me reading. But overall, the novel felt disjointed and the plot was ambiguous and slow. I had a little trouble keeping Evelyn and Hettie's stories separate as their characters seemed fairly similar.

As I was reading, I was really waiting to judge this book until I read the ending. I kept wondering if the story was leading anywhere, and if it did lead somewhere good at the end, then I might have liked it more. But here's the problem...the story didn't lead anywhere at all. It just stopped mid-sentence. I had an advanced reader's copy of this novel, and I am really hoping that perhaps my copy just wasn't finished yet. Because the other option is that the author actually chose to end the book this way. Perhaps she thought this was a clever literary device. But if that was the case, I didn't get it. At all. I usually enjoy an ending that is left a little open without wrapping everything up into a neat bow. But this book left everything completely unwrapped and strewn about everywhere. I was not a fan.

[Léa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un très beau roman qui retrace la vie de trois femmes anglaises, toutes touchées par la première guerre mondiale, durant les cinq jours précédant l'arrivée du Soldat Inconnu sur le sol britannique.
Anna Hope donne superbement vie à ses personnages touchés par la guerre, tentant de continuer à vivre malgré la douleur. L'histoire est prenante et les pages défilent sans que l'on s'en rende compte. Et plus ça va, plus c'est émouvant. J'ai versé ma petite larme à la lecture d'un chapitre où l'auteure décrit une "atrocité" souvent répandue en temps de guerre. Je ne vous en parlerai pas plus pour ne pas vous gâcher votre lecture mais en tout cas, lisez ce roman !

[Mmars · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not sure if there’s another book out there that tells the story of the women of WWI as well as this one does. Of course, the horrors and the trenches and the atrocities have been covered. Perhaps never before in its reality by a female writer. It was a horrid, horrid war. One that will, hopefully, never happen again. This is about the women living in post-war Britain. They’ve lost sons, brothers, and loves to the war. Dead or alive they are not the men and boys they saw go marching off. They are now shells of themselves. Or they are dead somewhere, identified or not identified. They are missing sight, limbs and sanity. They drink, they breakdown, they see ghosts.

Okay. This book is not that bleak. Really. It is 1920 and an unknown soldier’s body is dug up to be brought back to Britain in commemoration of Armistace Day, 1918 (told in italics.) Although I often dislike multiple story threads, I felt Anna Hope pulled it off. The three women vary in occupations and relationships to the soldiers and their aftermaths. They have lives, but they struggle. They live in various layers of British class and are of varying ages. I just thought it all just worked really well. And her war scenes were so well written. Eye opening if you are unaware of Britain post-WWI and worth the read if you are familiar with it. Well written. Exceedingly readable. One that’s going to hang with me.

[Laurie Notaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, wonderful riveting read. Why this book wasn't on the lips of everyone the year it came out is beyond me. How do such amazing books get lost? A compelling, emotional narrative about three women grappling with grief and change after WWI. Gorgeously written, I will read anything by this author from now on. Really impressive. I COMMAND YOU TO READ IT!

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good read, but a very depressing and heavy book overall. If you need a "pick me up" this may not be the book to read at that particular time. However, I recommend maybe when the days have more sunshine than dark.

[Sassenach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un bon 4,25/5 voire même 4,5/5 !
Pour un premier roman, j'ai trouvé l'ensemble très réussi : les personnages sont attachants et représentent différents milieux, j'ai découvert l'histoire autour de la création de la tombe du soldat inconnu britannique, et l'ambiance qui ressort de ce roman est à la fois émouvante et juste, sans pathos, avec des moments difficiles et d'autres plus légers. Le seul défaut : j'étais triste de quitter Hettie, Evelyn, Ada et tous ces personnages blessés, imparfaits mais terriblement humains.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

My attention was caught, first by a beautiful cover, and then by a title that appeared simple, but was actually full of meaning. ‘Wake’ is a word that speaks of both beginnings and endings; of the very first moment of a new day, and of the final ritual at the end of a life. It suits Anna Hope’s first novel, a compelling account of lives that had been changed by the Great War, so very well.

‘Wake’ tells the story of three women’s lives over the course of five days in November 1920. And it sets their stories against the story of the journey of the body of the Unknown Soldier, brought from the battlefield to his final resting place over the same five days.

•Hettie was young. She lived at home, with her mother and her shell-shocked brother, and she worked as a dancer, at the new Hammersmith Palais.
•Evelyn was a little older. She lost her love to the war, and so she lived quietly with a friend and worked hard, dealing with claims in a pensions office.
•Ada was older again, and she was a wife and mother, but she lost her son to the war and she struggled to accept that he was gone.

They had little in common, save that their lives had been knocked off course by the Great War. But a chance meeting changed things, and over the course of five days more about those three women, their lives, and the events during the war that changed their menfolk gradually became clear. It also became clear that there would be no easy answers, there was no black and white, that there were only shades of grey.

The writing was simple, clear, and profound. The characters were perfectly drawn, their worlds were perfectly realised, telling details are illuminated, and three women became utterly real to me. I cared for them and I was deeply affected by what happened, and what had happened to them and to the people they loved.

The story moved between them so smoothly that I sometimes I lost track of where I was, but that didn’t matter, because it made me realise that so much was the same for these three women. Some of the truths that emerged had echoes of other stories set in the same era, but that didn’t matter either, because it made me realise that there were so many men and women with similar tales.

And that, for me, was what gave this story power and depth. Hettie, Evelyn and Ada were three ordinary women who stood for a whole generation of women who had to live through the war and had to deal with its consequence. Anna Hope spoke for them, quietly and clearly, with understanding and with love, and her words stirred so many emotions.

And she made me wonder, is there any memorial to these women, beyond books that speak for them as ‘Wake’ does … ?

[Anne Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Alison Barrow at Transworld offered an advance reading copy of (and I quote) “the debut I am most excited about for 2014”, I got all excited too – how could I resist?

I devoured Wake – by former actress Anna Hope – in one glorious sitting. I loved the strapline on the cover of my version – “a novel of loss and longing and learning to dance again” (who wouldn’t be drawn in by that?). I’m delighted to tell you that I absolutely loved it. The writing is effortless, and the reading equally so: this is a book to immerse yourself in, and let it carry you through as it reveals its secrets.

Taking place over five days in November 1920, the counterpoint to the story is the progress of the body of the Unknown Soldier making its way from Northern France to its final resting place in Westminster Abbey. This is a story of the war’s aftermath, all about understanding and coming to terms with the horror, and rebuilding lives and relationships. It concentrates on three women, all equally engrossing. Hettie dances for sixpence a waltz at the Hammersmith Palais; Evelyn, from a wealthy background, works in the pensions office where she’s been forced to harden her heart; Ada sees her dead son in the street and struggles with the impact of her loss on her marriage.

It’s inevitable, I guess, that there will be a flood of First World War themed books next year given the centenary, but this one is something both very special and very different. I’ve seen it compared with The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - I’ll leave it up to you whether to embrace or ignore, depending on what you thought of it (that book isn't one of my personal favourites). In tone, it reminded me more of John Boyne’s The Absolutist, Mari Strachan’s Blow On A Dead Man’s Embers or even the inevitable Birdsong. But comparisons do this book no favours - it isn’t derivative in any way, it’s wholly original and absolutely mesmerising.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book as a digital ARC from the publisher through Net Galley in return for an honest review.

Title: Wake

Author: Anna Hope

Hardcover: 304 pages

Pub Date: February 11th, 2014

Publisher: Random House

 

NetGalley kindly sent this uncorrected proof of this book. Thank you so much.

 

"Wake" is a multilayered story of three women, Hettie - a dance instructress at the Palais, Evelyn, who works at the Pensions Exchange and Ada who is trying to find her son alive after the end of the Great War.

 

In the meantime, the preparations for the burial of the Unknown Soldier to be held in London are described as a background to the main plot.

 

The stories of these three women are in some way intertwined since the author describes how their families have endured four years of war and the two years of its aftermath.

 

Even if the story is full of sad episodes suffered by the men in the front and their relatives at home, the final part is enriched with the hope of the beginning of a new era.

 

A very touching and unforgettable book written by Anna Hope.

 

 

 

Tomb of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey.

[Wanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

25 OCT 2013 --Whee for me! I won this here on GRAmazon. I am so excited and grateful. A very nice letter came with the book from Erika Greber of the Marketing Department, The Random House Publishing Group. She hopes I enjoy the book as much as she did. Well, you know what? I hope I enjoy it more. This is my sort of book -- a post-WWI novel telling the life stories of three women and how the war changed their lives. Happy, Happy, Happy Me!


2 NOV 2013 -- Review under Thoughtful Construction. 3 stars to hold a place. And, remember, 3 stars mean a good, solid read!

3 NOV 2013 -- the synopsis speaks for itself. This brilliant debut novel weaves together the lives of three women in the aftermath of WWI with the arrival of the Unknown Soldier to his tomb in London, England. This is a novel which you really must read for yourself. You cannot rely upon the reviews (nor the star ratings - don't look only to the 4 and 5 star ratings; seek out the 2-3 star ratings also in order to obtain a more objective opinion). You must experience this novel with not only your eyes and mind; but, with your heart. Because it is with your heart that you will be reading this book.


Disclaimer: This is not a lengthy read but it did take me some time as I started over with my reading because work and life got in the way and I really wanted to give my full attention to the story.

[Clarabel · Rating 4 out of 5]

J'ai aimé l'atmosphère d'après-guerre, la préciosité des personnages, la description des sentiments, la démonstration des vies brisées et le cheminement à conduire son deuil.
Le style est impeccable, le ton juste, la note pure, avec une touche finale pleine d'espérance.
Un roman remarquable, à la fois poignant et transcendant.
http://blogclarabel.canalblog.com/arc...

[Georgia Retetakou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Το ¨Αυτοί που έμειναν πίσω " Είναι ένα βιβλίο που αποδίδει σε απόλυτο βαθμό την τραγικότητα και τον ψυχολογικό εγκλωβισμό των ανθρώπων που βίωσαν τον όλεθρο του Πολέμου και γνώρισαν σε προσωπικό επίπεδο τον χαμό του δικού τους ανθρώπου. Αλλά και αυτών που γύρισαν από τον πόλεμο, ψυχικά ράκη και βρέθηκαν αντιμέτωποι με τις τύψεις τους και τους προσωπικούς και ετεροχρονισμένους εφιάλτες τους.

Τρεις γυναίκες οι βασικές πρωταγωνίστριες του βιβλίου. Η Έιντα που έχει χάσει τον γιο της στον πόλεμο, αλλά εκείνη ελπίζει σθεναρά πως αυτός κάποια στιγμή θα γυρίσει. Η εμμονή της αυτή περιγράφεται με ζωντανό και σθεναρό τρόπο αποτυπώνοντας την ψυχική οδύνη της και την άρνηση της να αποδεχτεί το θλιβερό γεγονός.
Η Έβελιν ζει ρημαγμένη από τον χαμό του αγαπημένου της συντρόφου. Τα μικρά, αλλά σταθερά βήματα της προς την ζωή και το φως γίνονται με εμφατικά και προσεγμένα πατήματα ώστε να αποδώσουν το μέγεθος της σκοτοδίνης που υπάρχει στην ζωή της.
Η Χέτι που ζει με τον ψυχολογικά διαταραγμένο αδερφό της, είναι αναγκασμένη να κάνει μια δουλειά που δεν της αρέσει καθόλου. Εγκλωβισμένη και παγωμένη απο τις πληγές που κουβαλάει ο αδερφός της από το μέτωπο, μπλέκει σε μια περιπέτεια που θα την βγάλει σε άγνωστα και αχαρτογράφητα μονοπάτια.
Οι τρεις γυναίκες αποτελούν τα ζωντανά θύματα του πολέμου που έρχονται με τις ιστορίες τους να ενώσουν τον πόνο, την οργή και την κραυγή τους. Και να αποδώσουν φόρο τιμής σε όλους αυτούς που λαβώθηκαν συναισθηματικά στον πόλεμο και κουβάλησαν τις πληγές τους μαζί τους για μια ολόκληρη ζωή.

Παράλληλα ένας άγνωστος νεκρός Πολεμιστής ξεκινάει το ταξίδι του επαναπατρισμού του και θα γεμίζει με ένταση, αλληγορία και και στοχευμένα μηνύματα το κείμενο. Ενώ ο άγνωστος πολεμιστής ξεκινάει το ταξίδι της επιστροφής του στην πατρίδα. Γίνεται το σύμβολο του κάθε πεσόντα στην καρδιά και στο μυαλό αυτών που ψάχνουν να δώσουν ταυτότητα στον δικό τους νεκρό. Ένα σύμβολο τιμής, αλλά και ένα αντίτιμο ειρήνης σε κάθε ανόσιο πόλεμο.
1920, επέτειος της Ημέρας Ανακωχής η μοίρα των τριών γυναικών θα ενωθεί δυνατά, συνειρμικά και απόλυτα δίνοντας μια ώθηση ελπίδας στο μέλλον. Αφού πάλεψαν με συντριβή το παρελθόν. Αφού βούτηξαν στα θολά νερά της απουσίας, θα σταθούν περήφανα πια αντικρίζοντας την συνέχεια μιας ζωής που ακολουθεί την ροή της πραγματικότητας.

Δυνατά συναισθήματα και εικόνες που μπλοκάρουν τον νου στην στοχευμένη αλήθεια της πραγματικότητας που προσπαθεί να μας εμφυσήσει η συγγραφέας. Μας μεταφέρει με έναν δυνατό και περιεκτικό λόγο την ένταση και την πληγωμένη ψυχολογία εκείνων των γυναικών που έμειναν πίσω. Να θρηνούν τα θύματα ενός πολέμου. Και να προσπαθούν να ξαναγεννηθούν από τις στάχτες του ολέθρου. Φόβος, απόγνωση, θλίψη, θυμός, μελαγχολία. Συναισθήματα που κεντράρουν σε εκείνους που δεν αντέχουν το βάρος του θανάτου και του βίαιου αποχωρισμού. Σε εκείνους που λυγίζουν μπροστά στο φόντο της οριστικής απώλειας αγαπημένων προσώπων.

Ρεαλιστική και συγκλονιστική παρουσίαση των συναισθημάτων των γυναικών που στερήθηκαν τους αγαπημένους τους και έμειναν πίσω έχοντας πια μόνο συνδετικό κρίκο με τους ανθρώπους τους, τις τρυφερές και νοσταλγικές αναμνήσεις τους. Ειρωνεύεται με τις λέξεις τον πόλεμο. Καυτηριάζει και διακωμωδεί τις συνθήκες μιας μεταπολεμικής Ευρώπης που στήνετε επάνω σε πολιτικά κόλπα με την προοπτική να φτιάξει μια κοινωνία από ήρωες.

Με ωραία εκφραστικά μέσα, με ωραίο στήσιμο των σκηνών στην εναλλαγή ανάμεσα στην κάθε ηρωίδα. Με δυνατή και μεστή αφήγηση μας οδηγεί τελικά στο ξεδίπλωμα ενός μεγάλου και ισχυρού αντιπολεμικού μηνύματος.

Ένας αγωνιώδης εσωτερικός πόλεμος των ηρώων που θέτει απο την αρχή ως το τέλους όρους σύγκρισης. Μέτρα και αντίμετρα ανάμεσα στην πρότερη ευτυχία και στην σημερινή δυστυχία Αντίβαρο στον ηρωισμό, την αυτοθυσία και το καθήκον η απώλεια, η θλίψη η ντροπή. Αυτοί που έφυγαν για πάντα και και αυτοί που έμειναν πίσω ζυγιάζουν την δύναμη τους στον παραλογισμό του κάθε πολέμου.

Λύγισα στον πόνο και την απόγνωση των ηρώων γιατί όλο το συναίσθημα δόθηκε καθαρά και απόλυτα χωρίς υπερβολές και περίσσια δράματα. Λάτρεψα την άλλοτε καθαρόαιμη και άλλοτε υποδόρια ειρωνεία των λέξεων και των προτάσεων που οδηγούσαν στην καρδιά των συναισθηματικών καταλοίπων και του πραγματικού αντίκτυπου που άφησε πίσω του ο πόλεμος.

Διαβάστε το οπωσδήποτε εστιάζοντας στον εσωτερικό κόσμο των ηρώων. Τον τόσο παραστατικά δοσμένο. Στον τόσο ξεκάθαρα και απόλυτα τοποθετημένο σε μια νέα ζωή που αρνούνται να την δουν ξεκάθαρα εάν δεν έρθουν πρώτα αντιμέτωποι με το οδυνηρό παρελθόν τους.

https://vivlionerga.blogspot.com/2018...

[Roman Clodia · Rating 4 out of 5]

"`War wins,' he says. `And it keeps on winning, over and over again.'"

Shrewdly published at the centenary of the outbreak of WW1, this is a beautifully subtle and emotionally restrained novel, but one which conceals an undertow of violence and brutality.

Set in the five days leading up to 11 November 1920 and the ceremony for the burial of the Unnamed Warrior in London, this traces the emotional journeys of three women, all of whom have suffered losses as a result of the war.

Hope manages to convey the anguish of her characters without allowing them to stray into hand-wringing sentimentality. Evelyn's brother connects the three women and his subtly different identities - Ed to Hettie, Edward to his family, Captain Montfort to the men who once served under him - mark the way characters refuse to be easily fixed in this book, and are more complicated than we sometimes find in fiction, especially WW1 fiction.

This isn't a book full of drama, it's much quieter than that, with a kind of sepia-tinted emotional aura about it. Hope is a poised and assured writer, and the title with its resonances of both burial and resurrection give a feel for the delicate texture of this book.

So this is a fine book, and Anna Hope a writer to watch.

(This review is from an ARC courtesy of the publisher)

[Zoe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deeply moving and powerful!

Full review to follow shortly!

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book in a Goodreads First Reads giveaway, so thanks to Transworld Publishers for their generosity. I'm really not sure what rating to give this book. I found it interesting reading and I'm tossing up between 3 stars (which would actually be 3.5) and 4 stars. I think I might need to let it sit for a while before I can decide.

There are 2 angles to this book. One angle is the selection and transport back to Britain of the remains of a soldier from WWI, which becomes the Unknown Soldier - a memorial for all the soldiers whose bodies lie in foreign soil. The other angle follows the lives of 3 women for 5 days in a Britain which is struggling in the aftermath of the war to pick up the pieces and continue on. It was interesting to gain a bit more insight into what the men who fought in France went through - those who returned and those who didn't, how those who returned tried to somehow find ways to cope in the post-war world, and the wives, girlfriends, mothers and sisters who were left behind - some never to see their loved ones again, some to have only broken shells of their husbands and sons returned to them - and how they found ways to cope with the changes.

The writing was well done, although I did find keeping the threads of the different characters a bit hard at first. It took me until page 150 to make a connection between a couple of the characters, although in retrospect, the clues were there before and I just missed them. I found the ending satisfying, with enough loose ends tied up to make me happy.

I think the title was clever - on one of the first pages, three definitions of the word "wake" are given and they are all applicable to this book - the waking of Britain to a new dawn post-war, the ceremony of the Unknown Soldier and the crowds lining the streets to observe the procession of the funeral cortege is the closest any of the men who died at the front had to any kind of ceremony like a wake, and it is in the wake of the first World War that Britain needs to carry on (the powers-that-be are hopeful that the ceremony and memorial of the Unknown Soldier will help in allowing the country to move on).

EDIT: I've decided on 3.5 stars (rounded down, since GR doesn't allow half-stars) because it hasn't really stuck with me (possibly more of a reflection on me than the book). It's still a good read, but if I'd been a bit haunted by one (or more) of the characters in the time since finishing it, I might have felt able to give it 4 stars.