Review and Signed Giveaway: A Fierce Radiance by Lauren Belfer

A front-runner for my #1 book of 2010!!

A Fierce Radiance is an extraordinary novel which comes along once every few years.  I absolutely fell in love with this book and can't stop talking about it!!

A Fierce Radiance is set in the early 1940s during the first days following the attack on Pearl Harbor.  The story follows the life of Claire Shipley, a beautiful and talented photojournalist for Life magazine, whose boss sends her to cover the testing of a potentially revolutionary new medicine made from green mold - penicillin.   She is responsible for capturing the iconic images Americans look forward to seeing in Life Magazine.  Living in New York City, Claire is a single mother to an 8 year old boy, Charlie.  She lost her daughter, Emily, when she was only seven, from a scrape on the knee resulting in a blood infection.  Emily's life would have been saved by penicillin.  In 1941, the United States had just entered WWII, and "our boys" are dying on and off the battlefield from infection.  The government pleads with the seven largest pharmaceutical companies to make penicillin their top priority.  In the midst of this war-time drama, two people are brought together, fall in love, and are thrust into blackmail, espionage and murder, all of which revolve around the potential for mass production of a new blockbuster drug. 

Penicillin - the weapon of war.

The words leaped off the page and came to life for me.  Belfer's engaging writing transported me to war-time New York, the 1940s, an era that I'm already a bit obsessed with, and she got everything right.  I feel like I'm describing a movie when I tell you the dialogue is engaging and fast-paced, the costumes are stunning, and the scenery is perfection.  It may sound silly, but I loved that Belfer described all the women's clothes, hair and make-up.  She was descriptive without taking away from the action and helped me to become even more absorbed into this important time in the world's history. 

I have read an abundance of books that have World War II as their back-drop, but this was my first perspective of the war from this angle.   I also live in New Jersey, the home of several of the actual pharmaceutical companies mentioned in the novel, which gave me a whole new look at an industry of which I am already very familiar.  There is so much on-the-edge-of-your-seat drama in this race to the finish.  Which company will be first in discovering how to mass produce penicillin?  Will they share their discovery for the good of the country?  Will they be able to do it in time to save our soldiers?  Will they be able to do it in time to save our children?  How far are people willing to go to keep or steal secrets?  

This compelling novel was about loss, fear, hope, tragedy, war, suffering, government, corruption, fortune, greed and victory.  For me, it was a love story.  Claire Shipley meets Dr. James Stanton, a handsome doctor at The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, and what follows is the kind of love story they make movies about.  Will they survive this race to save lives?

When I finish a book like this, I need more, so I spent a lot of time online researching penicillin, the pharmaceutical companies mentioned in the book, as well as some of the people and places.  I don't need to share my discoveries with you, because in the Historical Note after the end of her novel, Belfer explains to readers which parts of her story were true to history and which were fiction.   It's extremely scary the role that some of the pharmaceutical companies, which still exist today, played in WWII - and I'm not talking about the drugs that saved lives. 

When people talk about the Great American Novel...this is it!  It has everything a reader could possibly ask for - intriguing characters, intense drama, interesting plot, a heavy dose of reality, an epic love story and it's all bound together with Lauren Belfer's brilliant writing.

Many thanks to Kelly & Hall Book Publicity for providing me with a review copy and introducing me to Lauren Belfer's work.

Book Extras:
Visit the Harper Collins page for an excerpt, reading guide and more.
Visit author Lauren Belfer's official website.

About the Book:
A Fierce Radiance: A Novel by Lauren Belfer
Hardcover: 544 pages
Publisher: Harper; 1 edition (June 15, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061252514
ISBN-13: 978-0061252518

About the Author (from publisher Harper Collins):

Lauren Belfer was born in Rochester, New York, and grew up in Buffalo, where she attended the Buffalo Seminary. At Swarthmore College, she majored in Medieval Studies. She has an M.F.A. from Columbia University.


Her debut novel, City of Light, was a New York Times bestseller, as well as a #1 Book Sense pick, a Barnes& Noble Discover Award nominee, a New York Times Notable Book, a Library Journal Best Book, and a Main Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club. City of Light was a bestseller in Great Britain and has been translated into seven languages. She is also the author of the novel A Fierce Radiance.
Lauren Belfer lives in New York City.

--------------------------

I had the honor of meeting the author of A Fierce Radiance, Lauren Belfer, at the Book Expo in May.  She was lovely and gracious.  Since authors are my rock stars, I got a bit flustered when I met her, and completely embarrassed myself by gushing profusely over her novel.   She was so kind and personalized her book to me.  It reads:  "To Alison, Best Wishes!  Readers like you make writing worthwhile!"

She was so generous to gave me another signed copy for me to give away here at Alison's Book Marks!

To win a SIGNED copy of A Fierce Radiance by Lauren Belfer:

1.  Become a follower of Alison's Book Marks (if not one already)

2.  Leave a comment below with your e-mail address. 

3.  Contest open only to residents of U.S. (no P.O. Boxes).

4.  Giveaway will run until June 29th

5.  Extra entries:  Share/Post on Twitter, Facebook or Blog

If you don't want to wait to win the book, and would like to order it from Amazon or Indiebound, please click on the links below.  You don't want to miss this one!

Shop Indie Bookstores