News & Media

Bookseller Suzy Wilson of Riverbend Books in Australia wrote my publisher the most amazing letter when she was 10 pages from the end of The Report. She then included the book in a list of her favorite upcoming titles on the Book Buzz panel at the Australian ABA. I vow to visit her store one day! … [Read more...]

The Second Pass included The Report in a list of Fall books to watch. … [Read more...]

There's a quibble in there, but otherwise very positive! I'm relieved. "Kane reimagines a real-life civilian tragedy during World War II, when 173 people, fleeing an apparent air raid, were crushed to death in a stairwell in a newly built Tube station in London. The Bethnal Green tragedy of March 3, 1943, is all the more terrible and poignant because no bombs fell over London that evening. And bizarrely, every death was by asphyxiation; only one victim—a survivor—suffered a broken bone. Kane, author of the story collectionBending Heaven (2002), moves deftly among perspectives on the catastrophe: We eavesdrop on war-battered townsfolk, the tardy policeman, the overburdened priest, the devastated shelter-chief who feels responsible. Kane's command of period detail is … [Read more...]

"The Report is a graceful and dignified look at a single event that quickly becomes something so much more expansive: a kaleidoscopic examination of crowds, of disasters, of reverberations and reckoning.  I was absolutely riveted." … [Read more...]

Highlights from the Publishers Weekly review: “The historical material and characters are wonderful...Kane skillfully reimagines the empathetic Dunne as he interprets the confessions and accusations of a community crushed by loss and guilt....Vivid descriptions of hunkered-down and rationed East Enders add a marvelous texture.” … [Read more...]

"Jessica Francis Kane's The Report is a stealthy, quiet page-turner that understands there is as much tension in reckoning a disaster as there is in the disaster itself. In precise and searching prose, The Report looks without flinching at moral obligation and family duty over seconds, and over years. It is a lovely book." … [Read more...]

I loved Elise's first novel, Hunger, so these words mean a lot. I'm very much looking forward to reading her new novel, An Unfinished Score, just published by Unbridled Books. "Elegantly written and suffused with insights into human motivation, The Report illuminates how we interpret and endure tragedy. This novel is engrossing both for the story it tells and the way it tells it. It is filled with small wonders and very hard to put down." … [Read more...]

I will be in Graywolf's booth at Book Expo America on Wednesday, May 26, to sign and give away galleys of The Report. I think we might also give out English biscuits. A galley and a cookie, what could be better? … [Read more...]