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After the fall of Troy, an eleven-year-old boy sets off for the razed city when his father and sister vanish into the war zone; Sing to Me is an intimate vision of the most storied war in history, as seen through the eyes of a child.
His family farm and the surrounding community now emptied by war, young Hani embarks on an epic quest – assisted by a brooding yet brilliant donkey – to find his lost sister in the ruins of Troy. Some war stories transcend time and circumstance, and so it is with the resourceful and heartbroken Hani, who must employ every bit of intelligence, every scrap of ingenuity, and ultimately every ounce of his spirit and humor to withstand the forces of civilization's collapse.
Hani is no ordinary boy, however, and a character unlike any you've ever met. His interior world is one of startling depth and complexity. His insights into life, lives, and history are breathtakingly fresh. And his hope for survival - not a given, and in fact, less than likely - will propel you to the startling conclusion of this brief, elegiac, and singular work.
"Browner brilliantly conveys the impact of war through its collateral consequences, such as the farms in Hani's village left barren without able-bodied men to tend them. The novel also playfully subverts Homer's heroic tropes...[A] worthy counterpoint to the classic myths." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Remarkable...An absorbing and powerful story showing the pointlessness of war."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Sing to Me succeeds brilliantly as an adventure story, an epic of war and survival, and a moving portrayal of friendship and familial loyalty. But, for me, the novel's most remarkable achievement is its inspired unfolding of its young protagonist's blossoming psyche. Each stage in his hero's journey leaves Hani a deeper, wiser thinker and a more courageous, compassionate, and ethical human being." ―Sigrid Nunez, author of the National Book Award-winning The Friend
"This tough, tender tale about a young boy and his donkey who set out together to find a loved one in the catastrophic aftermath of ancient conflict feels both like a portrait of times long past and something that might have happened a week ago. Browner's gorgeously drawn novel is rife with horror but also infused with hope, and Hani, his protagonist, is a marvelous creation. You root for him from page one." ―Laird Hunt, author of the National Book Award-nominated Zorrie
This information about Sing to Me was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Jesse Browner is the author of the novels The Uncertain Hour and Everything Happens Today, among others, as well as of the memoir How Did I Get Here? He is also the translator of works by Jean Cocteau, Paul Eluard, Rainer Maria Rilke, Matthieu Ricard and other French literary masters. He lives in New York City.
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