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Ilium, January 2024
Hardcover / e-Book
Eleven Days, July 2013
Hardcover / e-Book
Knopf
July 2013
On Sale: June 18, 2013
288 pages ISBN: 0307960706 EAN: 9780307960702 Kindle: B00ATLA8J8 Hardcover / e-Book
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Thriller
Powerful and lean, Eleven Days is an astonishing
first novel full of suspense that addresses our most basic
questions about war as it tells of the love between a mother
and her son. When the story opens on May 11, 2011, Sara’s
son, Jason, has been missing for nine days from a Special
Operations Forces mission on the same night as the Bin
Laden raid. Smart, young, and bohemian, Sara had dreams
of an Ivy League university for Jason that were not out of
reach, followed by a job on the Hill where there were
connections through his father. The events of 9/11 changed
Jason’s mind and Sara accepted that, steeping herself in all
things military to better understand her son’s days, while
she works as a freelance editor for Washington policy makers
and wonks.
Now she knows nothing more about Jason’s
fate than the crowds of well-wishers and media camped out in
the driveway in front of her small farmhouse in Chadds Ford,
Pennsylvania, waiting to hear news. In a series of
flashbacks we learn about Jason’s dashing absentee father, a
man who said he was a writer but whose career seemed to
involve being in faraway places. And through letters Jason
writes home from his training and early missions, we get a
picture of a strong, compassionate leader who is wise beyond
his years and modest about his abilities. Those exceptional
abilities will give Jason the chance to participate in a
wholly different level of assignment, the most important and
dangerous of his career. At the end Sara will find herself
on an unexpected journey full of surprise.
This is
a haunting narrative about a mother’s bond with her son;
about life choices; about the military, war, and service to
one’s country. Lea Carpenter, a dazzling new talent with the
kind of strong and distinctive voice that comes along all
too rarely, has given us a thrilling and unforgettable story.
No awards found for this book.
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