KIPLING's CHOICE (how the famous author lost his only son in WW.1)
Geert SPILLEBEEN’s novel KIPLING’s CHOICE has been welcomed by all reviewers. His first book (translation) in the US received 3 American awards for young adult literature.
GREAT REVIEWS of Kipling’s Choice
Colleen Mondor a.k.a. Chasing Ray
http://www.chasingray.com/archives/2007/08/these_are_the_damned_circles_d.html
Kipling’s Choice has a beauty like few books I have read; a sad kind of beauty that burns your very heart. Kipling’s Choice is not a hard book - it is a heartbreaking one. It is the story of one soldier, John Kipling, and how he came to die for his country. It is also the story of his famous father, Rudyard Kipling, and why he urged his son to go off to war, and how much he suffered because of his naive ideas about glory.
It is a story about a nation and a world and all the young men who died for nothing. As Rudyard Kipling later wrote: “If any question why we died, Tell them, because our fathers lied.”
School Library Journal, Starred Review
“This well-written novel combines facts with speculation about John Kipling’s short life and gruesome death. A riveting account of World War I, Kipling’s Choice could become the next great war novel.”
Kirkus Reviews, Starred
“This powerful anti-war novel, made even more powerful by its roots in a famous author’s real life and his evolution from war zealot to embittered, broken father, deserves a place beside All Quiet on the Western Front.” - Kirkus, starred
Booklist , ALA (American Library Association)
“The power of this story is in the contrast between the war and the home front. . . . The changing viewpoints reveal the patriotic blather and racism that drove the acclaimed writer to send the boy he loved to die in a war he knew nothing about.”--
Publishers Weekly
“The novel subtly conveys the complexities and ironies of the father/son relationship. Between the lines readers will detect that John desperately needs approval from his father and Rudyard just as desperately wants his son to become what he could never be: a war hero.”
Bookslut (www.bookslut.com )
Kipling’s Choice is the most significant book I have read this year. I don’t say that lightly or easily… but it’s true.
GREAT REVIEWS of Kipling’s Choice
Colleen Mondor a.k.a. Chasing Ray
http://www.chasingray.com/archives/2007/08/these_are_the_damned_circles_d.html
Kipling’s Choice has a beauty like few books I have read; a sad kind of beauty that burns your very heart. Kipling’s Choice is not a hard book - it is a heartbreaking one. It is the story of one soldier, John Kipling, and how he came to die for his country. It is also the story of his famous father, Rudyard Kipling, and why he urged his son to go off to war, and how much he suffered because of his naive ideas about glory.
It is a story about a nation and a world and all the young men who died for nothing. As Rudyard Kipling later wrote: “If any question why we died, Tell them, because our fathers lied.”
School Library Journal, Starred Review
“This well-written novel combines facts with speculation about John Kipling’s short life and gruesome death. A riveting account of World War I, Kipling’s Choice could become the next great war novel.”
Kirkus Reviews, Starred
“This powerful anti-war novel, made even more powerful by its roots in a famous author’s real life and his evolution from war zealot to embittered, broken father, deserves a place beside All Quiet on the Western Front.” - Kirkus, starred
Booklist , ALA (American Library Association)
“The power of this story is in the contrast between the war and the home front. . . . The changing viewpoints reveal the patriotic blather and racism that drove the acclaimed writer to send the boy he loved to die in a war he knew nothing about.”--
Publishers Weekly
“The novel subtly conveys the complexities and ironies of the father/son relationship. Between the lines readers will detect that John desperately needs approval from his father and Rudyard just as desperately wants his son to become what he could never be: a war hero.”
Bookslut (www.bookslut.com )
Kipling’s Choice is the most significant book I have read this year. I don’t say that lightly or easily… but it’s true.
