Description
Stegner Fellow, Iowa MFA, and winner of The Atlantic's Student Writing Contest, Anthony Marra has written a brilliant debut novel that brings to life an abandoned hospital where a tough-minded doctor decides to harbor a hunted young girl, with powerful consequences.
In the final days of December 2004, in a small rural village in
Chechnya, eight-year-old Havaa hides in the woods when her father is
abducted by Russian forces. Fearing for her life, she flees with their
neighbor Akhmed--a failed physician--to the bombed-out hospital, where
Sonja, the one remaining doctor, treats a steady stream of wounded
rebels and refugees and mourns her missing sister. Over the course of
five dramatic days, Akhmed and Sonja reach back into their pasts to
unravel the intricate mystery of coincidence, betrayal, and forgiveness
that unexpectedly binds them and decides their fate.
With The English Patient's dramatic sweep and The Tiger's Wife's
expert sense of place, Marra gives us a searing debut about the
transcendent power of love in wartime, and how it can cause us to become
greater than we ever thought possible.
About the Author
ANTHONY MARRA is the winner of a Whiting Award, a Pushcart Prize, The Atlantic's Student Writing Contest, and the Narrative Prize, and his work was anthologized in Best American Nonrequired Reading 2012.
He holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and is currently a
Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. He has lived and studied in
Eastern Europe, and now resides in Oakland, CA.