My newest novel, Lovely
War, is finally here. I’m so excited to share it with the world.
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| Hades, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, & Apollo. All illustrations by Laura Molnar. |
Lovely War tells
the story of two pairs of young lovers who fall in love during the final year
of World War I. In an unusual twist, their stories are told by Greek gods.
Hephaestus, god of forges and fire, catches his wife, Aphrodite, goddess of
love, in the arms of her lover (and Hephaestus’s brother), Ares, god of war, in
a swanky Manhattan hotel in 1942. He ensnares the pair in a special net he’s
forged, and threatens to humiliate them in court on Mount Olympus. Aphrodite bargains
for a private trial and pleads her cause in the mock court case that ensues,
explaining to Hephaestus and Ares what real love is, and why her work is
so important, especially in times of war. To do so, she tells the love stories
of Hazel and James, and Aubrey and Colette, summoning other gods as witnesses
to supply their accounts. Ares brings us into the trenches, while Apollo, god of music, adds ragtime to the story, and Hades, lord of the Underworld, walks us through death's valley. A Greek chorus of
Greek gods accompany this journey back to 1917 at every stop.
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| James |
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| Hazel |
At a London parish dance, Hazel Windicott, an aspiring pianist,
meets James Alderidge, who hopes to be an architect, if he survives the war. After
a whirlwind few days together, he departs for France. Their romance continues
through letters until Hazel makes the bold decision to leave her respectable
life and her piano lessons behind, and volunteers as an entertainment secretary
with the YMCA in France. She’s stationed at an American Army base, where she
befriends a Belgian refugee, Colette Fournier, a singer who lost her entire
family in the massacre at Dinant, Belgium, in the early weeks of the war. Hazel
also meets Aubrey Edwards, an American soldier and ragtime pianist from the
fabled Harlem Hellfighters regiment in the segregated army. Music brings these
three together, and soon sparks fly between Colette and Aubrey, despite US Army
rules prohibiting any contact between black servicemen and white women, and the
animosity of white supremacist doughboys willing to lynch black soldiers to
keep them in their place.
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| Aubrey |
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| Colette |
The war that brought these four together also tears
them apart, as carnage, trauma, and hatred rage around James in the British trenches
and Aubrey with the US Army, and as Hazel and Colette endure privations, hard
labor, sexism, and the agony of waiting for news of their beloveds, long past hope
and reason.
Attempting to understand the geopolitical and social currents that shaped World War I has been a privilege and a joy, if also a hard slog through mountains of information, much of it harrowing to the soul. I love these characters, just as I’ve come to love and honor, as best I can, the actual people who lived and died and endured the Great War, both in its gruesome battlefields and on its grim and, at times, violent “Home Fronts.”
Now Lovely War is
out, and reviewers have been extraordinarily kind. The book has earned five
starred journal reviews from Kirkus, The Horn Book, Booklist, Publisher’sWeekly, and School Library Journal, as well as stars from other industry
publications including BookPage and Shelf Awareness. Amazon editors have named it a Best Book of the Month for March. The New York Times called it a “virtuoso” work; the Wall Street Journal called it “phenomenal;”
The Washington Post calls it “sweeping,
epic, brilliant,” Cosmopolitan called
it one of the “11 best books you’ll be obsessed with in 2019.” Entertainment Weekly writes, “Whatever
muse is singing in Berry to produce her lyrical writing, we’d like to lobby for
their services.” You can find interviews with me at Kirkus Reviews
and Publishers’
Weekly.
I’ve got a busy travel schedule this spring, promoting Lovely War all around the country.
Chances are good that I’ll be making my way to a bookstore or festival near you!
For a full roster of readings and signings, visit www.julieberrybooks.com/events.
I hope you have as much fun reading Lovely War as I had writing it. It’s a bit of a door-stopper, but
you’ll read in in a day or two or six, which always feels a bit unfair to me,
after the year-plus toil it took to write it. But such is the fate of a writer.
Chime in and let me know what you think. (Unless you hate it, in which case,
you can let me know by certified mail.) J
