What do you think?
Rate this book
What Remains
Sometimes only a work of fiction can reveal the truth ... Following the tumultuous life of journalist Kate Price from her first assignment as a naive and idealistic young correspondent in Riyadh in 1991, to Baghdad in 2004, this is an epic story of love, war and friendship that will stay with you forever.
Description
'Before you fall in love, or find a dear friend, you should know: this is the day I will meet someone whose memory will touch my heart and change my world forever. I believe the ability to do this is buried deep within each of us, and if we could find it we could imprint on our minds what the world looked like before so we could take the full measure of what remains.'
What Remains follows the tumultuous life of journalist Kate Price from her first assignment as a naive and idealistic young correspondent in Riyadh in 1991, to Baghdad in 2004, where she can't feel anything unless it cuts her to the bone. We track her through the war zones of the Arabian Peninsula, Palestine, South Africa, Bosnia, Rwanda, Chechnya and Iraq, through harrowing scenes of violence and destruction as she pays the price of bearing witness to unspeakable calamity and cruelty. Yet in the face of that horror, where friendship can be life's currency and love is often fleeting, comfort can be found in the smallest and most tender moments.
On her very first trip into a war zone, Kate meets legendary photographer Pete McDermott, and it is their journey together that lights up the pages of this remarkable novel. From a cynical beginning to grudging respect to something much more precious, their meetings and growing attraction frame the danger and terror of their working lives.
In a world that no longer makes sense, Kate begins to question everything she has ever believed in. The answers, when they come, will finally show her the way - but they cannot protect her from what she both longs for and fears.
What Remains is an epic story of love, war, friendship and ultimately of hope: gripping, confronting and unbearably heartbreaking. It will stay with you forever.
'Modern warfare and the lives of the correspondents who report it are portrayed with unflinching authenticity. This book is unforgettable.' - Rosie Scott, author of Faith Singer
'This is a love story, but it rips into your guts with the awful truth of the horror of war and the heartbreaking heroism of ordinary people. Fantastic read.' - Susan Duncan, author of Salvation Creek
'What Remains is about the eternal themes of love and war, the most intense and contemporaneous versions of both.' - Lucina Kathmann
Description
'Before you fall in love, or find a dear friend, you should know: this is the day I will meet someone whose memory will touch my heart and change my world forever. I believe the ability to do this is buried deep within each of us, and if we could find it we could imprint on our minds what the world looked like before so we could take the full measure of what remains.'
What Remains follows the tumultuous life of journalist Kate Price from her first assignment as a naive and idealistic young correspondent in Riyadh in 1991, to Baghdad in 2004, where she can't feel anything unless it cuts her to the bone. We track her through the war zones of the Arabian Peninsula, Palestine, South Africa, Bosnia, Rwanda, Chechnya and Iraq, through harrowing scenes of violence and destruction as she pays the price of bearing witness to unspeakable calamity and cruelty. Yet in the face of that horror, where friendship can be life's currency and love is often fleeting, comfort can be found in the smallest and most tender moments.
On her very first trip into a war zone, Kate meets legendary photographer Pete McDermott, and it is their journey together that lights up the pages of this remarkable novel. From a cynical beginning to grudging respect to something much more precious, their meetings and growing attraction frame the danger and terror of their working lives.
In a world that no longer makes sense, Kate begins to question everything she has ever believed in. The answers, when they come, will finally show her the way - but they cannot protect her from what she both longs for and fears.
What Remains is an epic story of love, war, friendship and ultimately of hope: gripping, confronting and unbearably heartbreaking. It will stay with you forever.
'Modern warfare and the lives of the correspondents who report it are portrayed with unflinching authenticity. This book is unforgettable.' - Rosie Scott, author of Faith Singer
'This is a love story, but it rips into your guts with the awful truth of the horror of war and the heartbreaking heroism of ordinary people. Fantastic read.' - Susan Duncan, author of Salvation Creek
'What Remains is about the eternal themes of love and war, the most intense and contemporaneous versions of both.' - Lucina Kathmann
ebook
First published January 1, 2012
4 people are currently reading
83 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 8, 2012
“Vivid and heartrending, a novel as memoir of a journalist needing love to weigh against her horror and dismay at massacre and genocide by a writer who closely understands frontline reporting” – John Bryson, Chairman of the Literature Board of the Australia Council (taken from Denise Leith's website)
Initially, I picked this novel up at the library as the beautiful cover art caught my attention, but on reading the synopsis at the back, my curiosity was even more aroused when I saw that my former homeland – South Africa – was mentioned.
I finished it yesterday, and whilst many books leave my thoughts as soon as I reach for the next one, What Remains has left me with images that will continue to haunt me for some time. This story is one of epic proportions and one which will leave you asking the same question as Kate Price – “do you think that evil really exists?”
And, whilst we all sit in our mostly safe homes in this beautiful country Australia, reading about war in the newspaper and hoping to gain some understanding and insight to all the madness, we in fact have no idea – the press editors attempt to keep us from seeing the true images of mostly innocent casualties of war and the unnecessary atrocities that all war inflicts on its victims.
Told in the first-person through the eyes of an inexperienced and naïve young war correspondent, Kate Price, this book gives an in-depth view of what our journalists face on the front line every day. Denise Leith takes us on an intrepid, eye-opening journey, one in which she vividly describes the carnage witnessed by these war correspondents.
Beginning in Riyadh in 1991, and whilst covering her first assignment, Kate meets Pete McDermott, a renowned photo journalist, for the first time. An idealist who would like to change the world (and which idealism sometimes gets her into a wealth of trouble), Kate is determined to get her first big break and prove her editor wrong, so she approaches Pete to ask if she can join his crew. Whilst on their journey towards Kuwait, they traverse the “Highway of Death” which refers to a six-lane highway between Kuwait and Iraq in which an attack by American aircraft and ground forces resulted in the destruction of hundreds of vehicles and the deaths of many of the occupants. June 1992 brings with it Johannesburg where she covers a story on the unrest between two of the country’s largest black political parties, and finds herself in one of the biggest, most dangerous townships on the outskirts of Johannesburg and witnesses for the first time the act of necklacing - Kate thinks she has seen it all.
Rwanda during April 1994 finally sees Kate and Pete attempting to let their guards down, but unfortunately after witnessing the diabolical genocide committed in Nyarubuye (a gruesome and heartbreaking scene) where Kate’s emotions begin to close down on her and she is left unable to process the savage reality, we are left wondering whether she will ever be able to return to the point where visions and dreams of this gruesome and heart-breaking scene she bears witness to, no longer trouble her. The picture she paints of Rwanda is graphic and describes the abject ravages of war that in our minds as civilians we cannot begin to comprehend - “Rwanda was too much for the mind to take in. Something in her was dying … her hope.”
Ultimately this is a story of love and hope, one that spans 14 years, where both Kate and Pete meet up from time to time on their assignments and one where they attempt to overcome all the battle scars and devastation of war. By no means soppy and scripted in such a way that their story folds seamlessly into the heart of the book, their relationship is a complex one, but Denise has captured some extremely tender and poignant moments between them, as well as the people they come into contact with and the friendships they build.
I was quite taken by the nostalgia that the author invoked in me on Kate and Pete’s visit to my home Province of KwaZulu-Natal in 2002 where they are called to make a documentary at an AIDS Hospital in Tugela Ferry. Denise Leith has captured the essence of life in rural KwaZulu-Natal perfectly and Kate’s uninhibited actions with the children at both the hospital and in the village left my heart aching.
In the last few heart-wrenching chapters, Kate’s thoughts are deep and profound and saw me reaching for the tissues as the tears rolled down my cheeks and I sobbed my way through to the very last page. Will those haunting words “you only regret the things you didn’t do” enable her to see what remains?
In my opinion, Denise Leith has produced a well researched, confronting, deeply compelling and thought-provoking novel bringing to life characters with personality and humaneness and which will leave you haunted long after the final page is turned. A love story that is “subsumed in the rush to keep working and to stay alive”, but which grows in the most unlikeliest of places - this is a story that everyone should read.
Initially, I picked this novel up at the library as the beautiful cover art caught my attention, but on reading the synopsis at the back, my curiosity was even more aroused when I saw that my former homeland – South Africa – was mentioned.
I finished it yesterday, and whilst many books leave my thoughts as soon as I reach for the next one, What Remains has left me with images that will continue to haunt me for some time. This story is one of epic proportions and one which will leave you asking the same question as Kate Price – “do you think that evil really exists?”
And, whilst we all sit in our mostly safe homes in this beautiful country Australia, reading about war in the newspaper and hoping to gain some understanding and insight to all the madness, we in fact have no idea – the press editors attempt to keep us from seeing the true images of mostly innocent casualties of war and the unnecessary atrocities that all war inflicts on its victims.
Told in the first-person through the eyes of an inexperienced and naïve young war correspondent, Kate Price, this book gives an in-depth view of what our journalists face on the front line every day. Denise Leith takes us on an intrepid, eye-opening journey, one in which she vividly describes the carnage witnessed by these war correspondents.
Beginning in Riyadh in 1991, and whilst covering her first assignment, Kate meets Pete McDermott, a renowned photo journalist, for the first time. An idealist who would like to change the world (and which idealism sometimes gets her into a wealth of trouble), Kate is determined to get her first big break and prove her editor wrong, so she approaches Pete to ask if she can join his crew. Whilst on their journey towards Kuwait, they traverse the “Highway of Death” which refers to a six-lane highway between Kuwait and Iraq in which an attack by American aircraft and ground forces resulted in the destruction of hundreds of vehicles and the deaths of many of the occupants. June 1992 brings with it Johannesburg where she covers a story on the unrest between two of the country’s largest black political parties, and finds herself in one of the biggest, most dangerous townships on the outskirts of Johannesburg and witnesses for the first time the act of necklacing - Kate thinks she has seen it all.
Rwanda during April 1994 finally sees Kate and Pete attempting to let their guards down, but unfortunately after witnessing the diabolical genocide committed in Nyarubuye (a gruesome and heartbreaking scene) where Kate’s emotions begin to close down on her and she is left unable to process the savage reality, we are left wondering whether she will ever be able to return to the point where visions and dreams of this gruesome and heart-breaking scene she bears witness to, no longer trouble her. The picture she paints of Rwanda is graphic and describes the abject ravages of war that in our minds as civilians we cannot begin to comprehend - “Rwanda was too much for the mind to take in. Something in her was dying … her hope.”
Ultimately this is a story of love and hope, one that spans 14 years, where both Kate and Pete meet up from time to time on their assignments and one where they attempt to overcome all the battle scars and devastation of war. By no means soppy and scripted in such a way that their story folds seamlessly into the heart of the book, their relationship is a complex one, but Denise has captured some extremely tender and poignant moments between them, as well as the people they come into contact with and the friendships they build.
I was quite taken by the nostalgia that the author invoked in me on Kate and Pete’s visit to my home Province of KwaZulu-Natal in 2002 where they are called to make a documentary at an AIDS Hospital in Tugela Ferry. Denise Leith has captured the essence of life in rural KwaZulu-Natal perfectly and Kate’s uninhibited actions with the children at both the hospital and in the village left my heart aching.
In the last few heart-wrenching chapters, Kate’s thoughts are deep and profound and saw me reaching for the tissues as the tears rolled down my cheeks and I sobbed my way through to the very last page. Will those haunting words “you only regret the things you didn’t do” enable her to see what remains?
In my opinion, Denise Leith has produced a well researched, confronting, deeply compelling and thought-provoking novel bringing to life characters with personality and humaneness and which will leave you haunted long after the final page is turned. A love story that is “subsumed in the rush to keep working and to stay alive”, but which grows in the most unlikeliest of places - this is a story that everyone should read.
December 4, 2015
Moving. Gripping. Beautifully told. A love story set amid the horrors of war.
August 5, 2021
I was traveling when I read this book. I had woken at 4am for a 6am flight from Stavanger, Norway to Copenhagen, Denmark.
And as I flew, I was reading. Devouring one of the best fictions I have ever read. 'Best' because it was well-written ... 'best' because it was written by a war journalist too, and their stories are the non-fiction genre I read most.
I was reading her book, 'What Remains', as the plane climbed up out of Stavanger. I read, glancing out the window, just briefly, as we passed over fiords in Norway. I read as the pilot flew low over the North Sea, landing at the airport in Copenhagen. And I read as I ate breakfast there, and continued to read after boarding that second plane returning me to Belgium.
And while I was curious about the view from those plane windows the book held me fast. I dove into the story of Kate Price and war zones, of Pete McDermott, and a big love.
I read the closing chapters on the 45-minute bus ride from Brussels Airport to Antwerp, wiping away the threat of tears while reading it right through to the end. Then, still not quite home, I spun back to the start, just to be sure of what I had read there ...
I remember, I fell into bed in Belgium, slept for 2 hours and woke missing the story that had carried me across a small part of Europe.
Denise Leith also knew the journalist, Marie Colvin, who was killed while reporting in Syria. She has included an interview she made with Marie. It appears in her book 'Bearing Witness' but that particular interview is there on her website.
If things are never spoken of, if people accept all without informing themselves, then incredibly horrific things can happen. I so very much admire those who go out and bear witness for as long as they can. The price is huge. I am recommending Denise's book ... so very highly.
And as I flew, I was reading. Devouring one of the best fictions I have ever read. 'Best' because it was well-written ... 'best' because it was written by a war journalist too, and their stories are the non-fiction genre I read most.
I was reading her book, 'What Remains', as the plane climbed up out of Stavanger. I read, glancing out the window, just briefly, as we passed over fiords in Norway. I read as the pilot flew low over the North Sea, landing at the airport in Copenhagen. And I read as I ate breakfast there, and continued to read after boarding that second plane returning me to Belgium.
And while I was curious about the view from those plane windows the book held me fast. I dove into the story of Kate Price and war zones, of Pete McDermott, and a big love.
I read the closing chapters on the 45-minute bus ride from Brussels Airport to Antwerp, wiping away the threat of tears while reading it right through to the end. Then, still not quite home, I spun back to the start, just to be sure of what I had read there ...
I remember, I fell into bed in Belgium, slept for 2 hours and woke missing the story that had carried me across a small part of Europe.
Denise Leith also knew the journalist, Marie Colvin, who was killed while reporting in Syria. She has included an interview she made with Marie. It appears in her book 'Bearing Witness' but that particular interview is there on her website.
If things are never spoken of, if people accept all without informing themselves, then incredibly horrific things can happen. I so very much admire those who go out and bear witness for as long as they can. The price is huge. I am recommending Denise's book ... so very highly.
September 1, 2021
A gripping heartbreaking half fictional story about war, friendship and love seen through the lenses of a young war correspondent and covering the years between 1991 and 2004. This book is unforgettable!
May 27, 2023
Loved, loved, loved it! Didn’t want it to end.
September 5, 2012
First and foremost a love story, this first novel by Denise Leith is set in some of the worst conflicts over the past 20 years; Iraq, Bosnia, South Africa, Chechnya, Afghanistan and not to forget the chilling opening chapter of Rwanda just to name a few.
Although fictional What Remains is historically accurate, political more like a biography it delves into the lives of photojournalists and war correspondents, the horror and attraction to cover war, relationships both in a war zone and general society, post traumatic stress syndrome. Leith follows the life of Katie Price as a naive young war correspondent from her first assignment in Ryadh in 1991 where she meets the legendary photojournalist, Peter McDermott through to the many horrific and disturbing wars, stints in London and Sydney. Theirs is a believable love story based on friendship, strong bonds, trauma, missed chances and how important communication plays in relationships.
Its the little details of people and places that build the big pictures in your mind, the sheer rawness, simple and moving writing that create the power. This book will leave you with a lump in your throat and stay with you for a long time.
Although fictional What Remains is historically accurate, political more like a biography it delves into the lives of photojournalists and war correspondents, the horror and attraction to cover war, relationships both in a war zone and general society, post traumatic stress syndrome. Leith follows the life of Katie Price as a naive young war correspondent from her first assignment in Ryadh in 1991 where she meets the legendary photojournalist, Peter McDermott through to the many horrific and disturbing wars, stints in London and Sydney. Theirs is a believable love story based on friendship, strong bonds, trauma, missed chances and how important communication plays in relationships.
Its the little details of people and places that build the big pictures in your mind, the sheer rawness, simple and moving writing that create the power. This book will leave you with a lump in your throat and stay with you for a long time.
June 27, 2012
I found this very difficult to put down - the plotting is clever and the subject means we are very aware that things may go wrong any time! THis is fiction but read like a great memoir would - highly recommended.
January 2, 2024
I absolutely loved this book and I loved the fact it was written as fiction but to me it felt like a memoir in a photo/journalistic point of view.
Despite the devastating war conditions and the gruesome images of suffering, What Remains was a love story that made me shed a tear.
Despite the devastating war conditions and the gruesome images of suffering, What Remains was a love story that made me shed a tear.
April 27, 2012
Couldn't put it down. Absolutely fantastic.
Want to read
July 9, 2012Not Tuckahoe. Not Kindle.
August 28, 2012
A very easy fantastic read - loved the realism
Of war journalism, the way the author correctly depicted the scenes. Am disspointed that I have finished the book
Of war journalism, the way the author correctly depicted the scenes. Am disspointed that I have finished the book
May 14, 2014
Heartbreakingly beautiful and just plain heartbreaking. This was incredibly romantic and I couldn't put it down.
June 1, 2013
Got better as I got into the book and the main character became more real.
November 26, 2014
Brilliant - surprising and enlightening. I couldn't put this down.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews