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The Report

by Jessica Francis Kane (Goodreads Author)

3.69 of 5 stars 3.69 · rating details · 541 ratings · 143 reviews

A stunning first novel that is an evocative reimagining of a World War II civilian disaster

On a March night in 1943, on the steps of a London Tube station, 173 people die in a crowd seeking shelter from what seemed to be another air raid. When the devastated neighborhood demands an inquiry, the job falls to magistrate Laurence Dunne.

In this beautifully crafted novel, Jess...more

Paperback, 238 pages

Published August 31st 2010 by Graywolf Press

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Best 1940s Historical Fiction

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Sep 05, 2010 Dan Porter rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads, non-fiction-novel

My review of The Report is posted on The Chaotic Reader.

7 likes · like · see review

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Dan Porter Natalie - For me, a five-star book is one that I'll re-read because there's more to it than I got in a single reading. I only have four 5-star books s...more
Sep 05, 2010 07:04pm

Natalie Hi Dan, Thanks for explaining how you rate. I must admit I rank fairly similarlyexcept I am more generous handing out fours !

Like you, there are very...more
Sep 06, 2010 12:09pm

Apr 19, 2013 James rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, history

The greatest experience you can have as a reader is to entrust yourself to an author you have never heard of before, to read a book about which you know nothing, and to be rewarded for this leap of faith with a glorius read. I have no idea why I put this book on my to read list nor indeed any memory of how it actually reached my bookshelf. I suspect my wife despite her denials sneaked it in the to read bookshelf in an ongoing quest to widen my blinkered horizons.

The story is a sparse and unders...more

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Apr 14, 2011 Tara rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was intrigued as to what an American author's take on this English wartime tragedy would be. Her source material was a government-commissioned inquiry, later published by HMSO in book form.

At first it seemed too dry, but actually her approach works very well. The main character is JP Laurie Dunne, author of the report, but it also focuses on others involved in the case.

Without resorting to 'Spirit of the Blitz' cliche, Jessica Francis Kane achieves a thoughtful and moving, if unsettling look...more

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May 19, 2010 Ruth Brueck rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Yes

I recieved an early printing of the book "The Report" by Jessica Francis Kane. I really enjoyed reading this account of a civilian tragedy that took place during WWII. Ms. Kane has taken a true incident and added fictional characters to tell the story. She does a wonderful job of showing both the faults and strengths of the people in the story. I was impressed by tha fact that she didn't make any of her characters seem unrealistically sentimantal. Rather, the honest human frailities which we all...more

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Jun 16, 2013 Ash rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Report is about a real life tragedy that happened in 1943: 173 people are killed, crushed to death, in a tube station set up as a makeshift war shelter. What caused the residents of Bethnal Green to get so spooked? Magistrate Sir Lawrence Dunne has been contacted to write a report to find out what happened.

Flash forward 30 years later, Dunne's report is infamous and Paul Barber wants to do an retrospective on it and Dunne. Although hesitant at first, Dunne allows Paul to interview him when...more

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Nov 18, 2012 Michael Moseley rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club

Bethnal Green wartime 1943 there was a ban on wartime weather forecasts. Some of the images from this book are horrific; there was a painting of a woman who had been blown into a tree by a bomb blast. The shrapnel from anti aircraft guns killed more than the bombers? Large poles where placed in all the parks to stop German aircraft from landing. The report following the accident was written by Laurence Dume worth following up about him. Ada had two children Emma and lily she could be labelled as...more

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Oct 10, 2012 Roger Pettit rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"The Report" is a debut novel by American writer Jessica Francis Kane. It is a mixture of fact and fiction about the worst civilian disaster of the Second World War. If the extracts from professional reviews printed on the book's inside cover are anything to go by, it received wide critical praise when it was published. I don't think it's quite as good as those reviews seem to suggest. Nonetheless, it is a competent and sometimes fascinating novel about an incident that deserves much wider atten...more "The Report" is a debut novel by American writer Jessica Francis Kane. It is a mixture of fact and fiction about the worst civilian disaster of the Second World War. If the extracts from professional reviews printed on the book's inside cover are anything to go by, it received wide critical praise when it was published. I don't think it's quite as good as those reviews seem to suggest. Nonetheless, it is a competent and sometimes fascinating novel about an incident that deserves much wider attention than it appears to have been given.

During the Blitz, London underground stations were used as air-raid shelters. On the evening of 3 March 1943, there was no German air raid on the city. However, the sirens went off. As a result, the people of Bethnal Green in east London rushed to their local underground station for safety. Someone tripped while descending the stairs and, in the ensuing crush and panic, 173 people lost their lives. They were either crushed to death or were asphyxiated. The details of this horrific accident were hushed up, for a variety of reasons. A report of the incident was written, but it was not published until the war was over. This novel is about the accident and its aftermath, in particular the loss felt by the local community and by the individual families who suffered a bereavement and also about the search for blame and the need for the people affected to be able to make sense of what appears to have been such a needless tragedy.

I applaud the relatively restrained writing style of Jessica Francis Kane. She does not try to sensationalise the events she describes. "The Report" is an intriguing and sensitive novel. However, the author's somewhat sober approach does sometimes introduce an element of dullness into what is otherwise a compelling and thought-provoking story. There were a few occasions when I became a bit bored with the book. Ms Kane is very good at getting across to the reader a sense of what things must have been like in east London during the Blitz. She makes us realise, for example, that anti-semitic feelings were more widespread in the local community at that time than one might imagine.

It may perhaps have been slightly overpraised, but there can be no doubt that "The Report" is a good novel that is worth reading. It also provides a valuable service in bringing to wider public attention the details of an incident that, I suspect, many readers will not have been aware of before starting the book. 7/10.

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Jul 03, 2012 Lisa Eckstein rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2011

I read this book in two days, unusually quickly for me. I had some other things I was supposed to be doing during those two days, but once I began reading this book, I had to neglect everything else in order to get to the end of the story.

THE REPORT is a mystery, in a way. Early in the novel, a tragedy takes place. It's a real event that occurred during World War II: As residents in a London neighborhood entered a Tube station air raid shelter, a sudden crush of bodies led to 173 deaths. Kane le...more

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May 31, 2012 Jeffrey rated it 3 of 5 stars

Good but should be great...

No, it does not merit the rave reviews. But it is a competent book that ( oh, and here I go AGAIN) if an agent or publisher's editor had taken the time to point out the flaws...could have been great.

The tube disaster is not unknown...there are documentaries...but it is fertile and moving ground for a novel about East End life and a world now gone.

No..we don't get this...yet again we get one of these first person, present and past to and fro books ( publishers PLEASE. M...more

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Apr 15, 2012 David Hebblethwaite rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Report revolves around a real-life event from the Blitz: the night when 173 people died in a crush on the way into Bethnal Green tube station (which was being used as an air-raid shelter). Jessica Francis Kane imagines the inquiry into the disaster, undertaken by magistrate Laurence Dunne; and follows the lives of characters involved in the tragedy, such as Ada Barber and her surviving daughter Tilly (Ada’s younger daughter Emma having been killed in the crush). A parallel narrative concerns...more

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Jan 18, 2012 Holly rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-reads

Well written in clear and perfectly serviceable prose, but after I understood the basic plot and how it was to be handled, the language didn't interest me that much -- the sentences just didn't leave a lot to explore or dwell on. I was reading Lionel Shriver and Geoff Dyer this week and both of those writers demand/reward close reading -- Shriver for her vocabulary and complexity of syntax and embedded concepts; Dyer for his drollery, offbeat humor, and understated profundity. The Report also ha...more

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Nov 24, 2011 Charlie Quimby rated it 5 of 5 stars

Jessica Kane's THE REPORT reimagines a real tragedy that occurred in a London air raid shelter following the Allies' bombing of Berlin during WWII. Expecting a German reprisal, residents of Bethnal Green heard warning sirens and went to the shelter located in an unfinished tube station. For unknown reasons, a jam-up occurred, and 173 civilians died, packed together in the stairway.

Was the accident the result of a panic, a new experimental weapon (German or British) or refugee disruption? A magi...more Jessica Kane's THE REPORT reimagines a real tragedy that occurred in a London air raid shelter following the Allies' bombing of Berlin during WWII. Expecting a German reprisal, residents of Bethnal Green heard warning sirens and went to the shelter located in an unfinished tube station. For unknown reasons, a jam-up occurred, and 173 civilians died, packed together in the stairway.

Was the accident the result of a panic, a new experimental weapon (German or British) or refugee disruption? A magistrate is appointed to hold hearings into the matter. The bureaucrats see the inquiry as necessary only to quell distrust of the war effort and help restore morale. They don't intend to release the report.

Laurie Dunne's inquiry uncovers conflicting testimony, but even more revealing, he discovers feelings of guilt among survivors who can't be certain whether their actions (or inactions) contributed to the tragedy. A constable arrives late to his post because he reprimanded some boys for violating the black out. A warden placed a new, brighter light bulb above the stairway, even though he knew it was likely to be broken out. A mother saves one child, loses another and tries to redeem herself. A clerk is given make work following the accident and is haunted by it. A minister tries to help the community make sense of the event and release themselves from guilt.

The novel mingles actual events and characters with invention in a seamless fashion, focusing on the impact of the tragedy rather than the horrible accident itself. It weaves accounts of the past with a re-examination of the tragedy seen 30 years later. A child from Bethnal Green, now grown, arrives at Dunne's doorstep, intent on producing a documentary film. In the process, more is revealed that was suppressed in the original report, which was renowned for its style, sensitivity and reluctance to cast blame.

Dunne says, "I reject the kind of answer only blame can bring. I pity those who felt—maybe still feel—the report fails because it doesn't blame anyone."

And as Kane herself says here (http://www.themorningnews.org/article...) "my book was actually about how impossible it is to ever establish the absolute truth of any tragedy."

THE REPORT, like the magistrate's report, is a model of restraint and careful observation. It seems to have nothing extraneous, nothing missing (except what should be left to the reader's imagination) and strikes no false notes. It treats regret and the events that brought it at a cool remove that somehow draws it close. And it finds truths in tragedy even when it doesn't all the truths about it.(less)

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Oct 01, 2011 Steve rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

It's a risky, unexpected move for a novel about a historical tragedy to focus not on the "action" of the event, but rather the bureaucratic reconstruction and presentation of it, but Jessica Francis Kane pulls it off. It's impressive how smoothly The Report balances direct engagement of questions about historical construction, textuality, and authorship with a keen, humane, but never sentimental focus on the lives at stake in how the Bethnal Green tragedy gets remembered.

I've probably made it so...more

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Apr 12, 2011 Jane rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“The Bethnal Green Tube shelter disaster took place on the evening of Wednesday March 3, 1943.

173 people died in a terrifying crush as panic spread through the crowds of people trying to enter the station's bomb shelter in the East End of London.

However, no bomb struck and not a single casualty was the direct result of military aggression, making it the deadliest civilian incident of World War Two.”

Jessica Francis Kane, read the full historical transcript of the enquiry into this, the worst civ...more

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Nov 07, 2010 Nancy Oakes rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction

Based on a true story, The Report is a novel centered on an event which happened on March 3, 1943 at the Bethnal Green Tube station, which at the time also served as the local bomb shelter. Sir Laurence Dunne, the magistrate who wrote the report on the incident noted that “the stairway was converted from a corridor to a charnel house in ten to 15 seconds,” when one hundred seventy-three people died in a human crush on the stairs near the entrance to the shelter, asphyxiated to death. There were...more Based on a true story, The Report is a novel centered on an event which happened on March 3, 1943 at the Bethnal Green Tube station, which at the time also served as the local bomb shelter. Sir Laurence Dunne, the magistrate who wrote the report on the incident noted that “the stairway was converted from a corridor to a charnel house in ten to 15 seconds,” when one hundred seventy-three people died in a human crush on the stairs near the entrance to the shelter, asphyxiated to death. There were no bombs heading for or exploding in London, so how did this happen? The author, Jessica Frances Kane, has created a fictional account of that day and its aftermath in this splendid novel, which not only recreates this event, but asks some tough questions along the way that are in many ways still pertinent today.

The story begins with the arrival of a young man who has been trying to arrange an interview with Dunne for a 30-year retrospective documentary on the Bethnal Green incident. It then moves backward in time and the major characters who are involved in the tragedy are introduced. These characters are all too real, making it easy for the reader to become deeply involved in the story on a very human level as events proceed up to March 3rd and then afterward. The way the author has written this novel also provides a glimpse of the wartime problems and frustrations of those at the London homefront – the mistrust of refugees, the food shortages, the years of ongoing blackouts (one character remarked that her beloved baby sister had never even seen the moon in the night sky), the sheer endurance involved in trying to hold on until the war is over, etc., and the differences made simply based on where you lived in the city. As events are slowly revealed and unraveled, the characters become much more developed and come into their own and their motivations behind their actions also become clearer. They move on from that fateful night on to the aftermath, when individuals, families and the community are left to cope with their grief or other feelings about the tragedy, along with the progress of the inquiry led by Magistrate Dunne. Interspersed with the core story of the event, the story also moves in and out of the present of 1973, where people have definitely not forgotten, and where many of them are still dealing with the impact of this singular event, especially Dunne.

There are many realistic observations made by the characters that exemplify Kane’s excellent writing. For example, in a scene set in 1973, Dunne notes of the young man who came to interview him:

" …talking to him was like talking to any young person about the war years; they spoke from a background of black-and-white pictures, while your memories were very much in color. They asked about the rationing, while you saw coupons. They spoke about the public morale, when what you remembered were the faces. Try as they might, they only heard a chord or two, while the whole symphony still roared in your head."

The author became interested in the story when she discovered Tragedy at Bethnal Green, 1943: Report on an Inquiry into the Accident at Bethnal Green Tube Station Shelter (Uncovered Editions) at the British Library bookshop, and then went on to read the full transcript of the inquiry into the incident at the National Archives. She relates in the Author’s Note at the end of the book that news of the terrible event was “kept secret for days” and that magistrate Laurence Dunne pursued an investigation, published a report, and then the government suppressed it until the war’s end.

The Report is (unbelievably) this writer’s first novel and you would be hard pressed as a reader to read this book and not end up forming your own conclusions as to what really happened on that fateful night. It draws you in from the start and does not lessen its hold until the very end, not only because of the subject matter, but also because it is beautifully constructed. I most definitely recommend this book – and I hope it does well with readership. It is easily one of the best novels I’ve read this year. If you want to read a compelling work of historical fiction, this book is one that should not be missed. (less)

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Sep 16, 2011 Tonya rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-historical, fiction-based-on-truestory, world-war2

A wonderfully written novel based on a true event in Bethnal Green during WWII. On March 3, 1943 173 men, women, and children died in a London tube station used as a bomb shelter and not one single bomb dropped that night.

Kane uses real interviews and reports from that tragedy to transport us to a time a majority of us never knew. The underlying terror of bombing being felt while living everyday with that English 'stiff upper lip' is conveyed well in this novel while not being daunting to the r...more

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Oct 11, 2010 Kevin Fanning rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: totally-worth-owning

This is a fictionalized look at an event that really happened. 173 really did die, suddenly and unexpectedly, in a London air raid shelter during WWII. So. With a book like this, where you know Something Bad is going to happen, the question is only: When? The author teases things out, gets us invested in the characters and their lives, making note of tiny little details that might seem important or tragic later, and the suspense is all built up by the reader wondering when when when is this Bad...more This is a fictionalized look at an event that really happened. 173 really did die, suddenly and unexpectedly, in a London air raid shelter during WWII. So. With a book like this, where you know Something Bad is going to happen, the question is only: When? The author teases things out, gets us invested in the characters and their lives, making note of tiny little details that might seem important or tragic later, and the suspense is all built up by the reader wondering when when when is this Bad Thing going to happen?

This book is absolutely nothing like that. The Bad Thing happen so fast it's actually shocking. I was like: "Wait, what? It's happening? I'm not ready!" Brilliant, right? True to life. The Bad Thing happens, and we spend the book taking it apart, and seeing what happened to the people afterward. It's a slow fade, rather than a cymbal crash.

The writing is absolutely stunning, and it's remarkable that Kane is able to find little moments of grace and beauty in a story that is so, so, so, so sad. It's brutal. I don't even know how a person writes a story like this. A mother who lost one of her two children in the crush says: "I think I could endure anything. I'm not even scared. If I died I would miss Tilly, but I feel as though I have a child on each side of an abyss now and death would be just crossing over to spend time with the one I haven't seen in a while."

If I can make an odd juxtapositional leap, thematically this book reminded me of Sondheim's Into the Woods. In the midst of a huge and complicated argument about whose fault everything is, the Wicked Witch says: "No, of course, what really matters is the blame. Somebody to blame." That's what the characters in this book are struggling with as well. When Something Bad happens, it needs to be one person's fault, in order for everyone to feel better and start putting the past behind them. But it's never really like that, that never really works. Ultimately, what's the benefit of assigning blame?

Difficult stuff to be wrestling with, and this book does a powerful and amazing job.(less)

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Sep 15, 2012 Victoria rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a historial fiction piece focusing on WW2 which revolves around a real-life disaster at the Bethnal Green tube, then a shelter. I confess my main reason for reading it is that i live in and come from the area so was intrigued to find out more about the history of my streets, rather than a particular fascination for the era or historical fiction.

It explores the disaster and the East End characters and community well, without resorting to wartime/Blitz cliches, and I think the subtle expl...more

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Aug 27, 2012 Lynne rated it 4 of 5 stars

First heard this as recommended by John O'Farrell on A Good Read (R4)and glad I followed his advice. Moving recreation of the largest civilian casualty of WW2, at Bethnal Green tube which the majority of people have no idea of. 173 people died, many of them children in a crush on the stairs leading down to the shelter during an apparent air-raid, though ironically no bombs fell that night. Another dual narrative, juxtaposing the making of a documentary to commemmorate the 30th anniversary of the...more

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Apr 02, 2011 Anne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It was not until I was sent a copy of The Report by Jessica Francis Kane via the Amazon Vine programme that I became aware of the terrible disaster that happened at Bethnal Green Tube Station in March 1943. The station was being used as an air-raid shelter and that night 173 people were crushed to death as they were making their way down to the shelter.

Jessica Francis Kane's The Report is her fictional version of the events of that night, and of the following inquiry carried out by local magistr...more

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Aug 27, 2010 Richard Tran rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

I received this book from a Goodreads giveaway. I always enjoy material based in the WW2 era but this book was a little different as it doesn't really deal with anything on the war front.

This story alternates between two different timelines: one based in 1943 and one that occurs about 30 years later. It goes into an accident at a bomb shelter in London and deals with the aftermath and investigation that occurs.

What's surprising is that the accident occurs fairly early in the book which would m...more

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Aug 01, 2011 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011-reads, historical-fiction

I first heard about The Report when Jessica Francis Kane was interviewed on the radio, which was also the first time I had heard about the Bethnal Green tragedy; a crush which killed almost 200 people on a night where there wasn't a single bomb dropped on London. My Dad, who is really interested in WWII, bought the book and read it in about two days; and I too raced through it surprisingly quickly.

Essentially, The Report is split in two; bouncing between 1943 and 1973. In 1973, Paul Barber, a yo...more

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Aug 26, 2011 Lin rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is based on a true historical event, one that I hadn't heard of before, but that I found myself looking up information on during reading. Tilly was eight years old at the time of the disaster. Paul was only a baby (I did find it odd that 30 years after the event he was giving his age as 29!), but now he is researching what happened and producing a documentary on it. In the process, he interviews Dunne, the man who wrote the original report on the incident.

The historical setting felt v...more

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Jun 27, 2011 Martin Belcher rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Report is a novel based on the Bethnal Green tube station disaster in London, March 1943 when 173 civilians were literally crushed to death trying to get into the tube station to shelter from a German bombing raid that ironically never actually happened that night. The air raid siren sounds and people make their way to the station for shelter, local rumour has it that the Germans are going to retaliate in a big way in revenge for heavy bombing of Berlin. Entering the station, people start to...more The Report is a novel based on the Bethnal Green tube station disaster in London, March 1943 when 173 civilians were literally crushed to death trying to get into the tube station to shelter from a German bombing raid that ironically never actually happened that night. The air raid siren sounds and people make their way to the station for shelter, local rumour has it that the Germans are going to retaliate in a big way in revenge for heavy bombing of Berlin. Entering the station, people start to push and panic and a lady at the front trips...

I was really looking forward to reading this novel; I had read some small articles about the disaster and seen something on BBC TV about it and I find it strange that for one of the biggest civilian disasters during World War Two on British soil it is not better known about.

The book starts with introducing some of the characters involved, and centres on the Barber family, the mother, Ada and her two daughters, Tilly and Emma. Without spoiling the story too much, the Barber family are involved in the tragedy and one of the family dies. We follow Ada trying to cope with her loss and guilt if only she had done something else to stop it happening.

The people of Bethnal Green are enraged the following day to find no headlines or publicity about what happened at the tube station. It seems as though it has all been covered up for fear of affecting wartime morale.

After some local riots, a local magistrate, Laurence Dunne heads an inquiry in to the tragedy and the causes. He invites all of the local people involved to give their testimonies.

The book also moves occasionally to the 1970's and story of Paul Barber, the son of Ada visiting an elderly Laurence Dunne to ask for help/ research for a documentary that he is putting together on the tube station disaster.

I really enjoyed this book; it is not a novel that I would have normally picked up. The author really puts you in the wartime East End of London and you get a feel of the spirit and determination of everyday people living under extremely dangerous and difficult circumstances but still retaining a sense of humour and looking after each other (a lesson perhaps some of us could learn today).

My Mum was a little girl at the time of the tragedy in 1943 and lived in Bow not far from Bethnal Green before being evacuated and she played as a girl in Victoria Park which is mentioned a lot in the book so this made it very real for me. I loved it and thoroughly recommend it. I think this book would make a great project for school children interested in wartime London....
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Dec 17, 2012 Bernadette Robinson rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this fictional account of the Bethnal Green disaster of 1943. The underground station that was under construction at the time was used as an air raid shelter during the WWII.

On the night of 3rd March, 1943 a suspected air raid was taking place the air raid sirens had gone off and the Eastenders made there way to the underground station. As the crowd heard what they thought were bombs being dropped, panic set in and the crowd surged forwards causing people to fall. In the ensuing madnes...more

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Oct 05, 2010 Readnponder rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a fictionalized supposal of what might have occurred during England's worst civilian disaster of WWII. The London subways were used as bomb shelters during the war. One night in March 1943, about 170 were killed in a crush to enter the shelter. Ironically, no bombs fell that night. There was a backup of people rushing to enter the shelter, some stumbled on the stairs in the dark and many were crushed or suffocated in the resulting pile of bodies.

Magistrate Lawrence Dunne is charged with...more

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Feb 08, 2013 Helen Stower rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: british, war, tragedy

This is a great story of a tragic event in London during WW2 when 170 people were killed in a crush while entering an air raid shelter. This book is a fictional version of this real-life event.

The author displays wonderful insight into human nature as she unravels the events of the evening by following magistrate, Laurence Dunne's public enquiry into the event. Throughout the enquiry, we are introduced the many people involved on that terrible evening & we can identify with each of them.

Kan...more

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Sep 28, 2012 Lucy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2012

The Report is based on a real life incident where almost 200 people were crushed to death as they entered the tube station at Bethnal Green to shelter from an air raid during the second world war. Although only one character is based on a real person (the writer of the report into the disaster) most of the factors which contributed to the disaster are based on facts.

The factor which was fictional is written well to fit into the real events which surround it. As a reader you can see how it might...more

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Jan 18, 2011 Jeff rated it 4 of 5 stars

Read this book from start to finish on the plane. A beautifully written distraction from the 4 hrs with seat belt sign on, 1 hr of screaming baby and 30 minutes of wretching two rows back. Dude next to me literally had his fingers in his ears when baby and wretching got going at the same time as we landed. I was absorbed in this book. Reminded me a little of the Kite Runner which I similarly absorbed on a plane ride. Most fun when you think it is entirely based on reality and somewhat disappoint...more

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Dec 21, 2011 Sammie rated it 3 of 5 stars

I decided to read the book when I found out it was about a true disaster in the UK that I'd never even heard of. I felt it wrong that I should know so much about similar disasters like the Hillsborough disaster but have no idea that 173 people were crushed to death trying to get into a shelter during the war.

The novel feeds off various rumours and witness accounts at the time which were hushed up in order to prevent a loss of faith in the wartime government. A private enquiry was called for to...more

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About Jessica Francis Kane

JESSICA FRANCIS KANE is the author of The Report (Graywolf, 2010), a finalist for the 2010 Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize from the Center for Fiction and a Barnes & Noble "Discover" pick. She is also the author of the story collection Bending Heaven (Counterpoint, 2002), which was published in the US and the UK. Her stories have been broadcast on BBC radio and have appeared in many publicat...more

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