The Report »

Jessica Francis Kane is the author of a collection of stories, Bending Heaven. Her work has appeared in McSweeney’s, Virginia Quarterly Review, and the Missouri Review.

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, Jessica Francis Kane paints a vivid portrait of London at war. As Dunne investigates, he finds the truth to be precarious, even damaging. When he is forced to reflect on his report several decades later, he must consider whether the course he chose was the right one. The Report is a provocative commentary on the way all tragedies are remembered and endured.

Library Journal

Kane's first novel (after the short story collection Bending Heaven) revolves around the real-life Bethnal Green tube station disaster that occurred in London during World War II and claimed the lives of 173 people—the largest civilian accident of the war in Britain on a night when no bombs were dropped on the city. Trying to make sense of how so many people could die of asphyxiation on a stairway shelter, Kane creates a story whose characters are themselves either part of the accident or were involved in making follow-up inquiries. Laurence (Laurie) Dunn is the magistrate appointed to investigate and write the accident report within a short time of its occurrence. After 30 years, Paul Barber, a young filmmaker making a subsequent documentary about the tragedy, tracks down Laurie to interview him. Others who figure prominently are Ada Barber and her daughter, Tillie, two survivors of the accident. Weaving together the socioeconomic factors of London's East End, the weariness of war and refugee displacement, and the personalities of the various locals, this work of historical fiction implies that in times of peril there are sometimes no safe havens. VERDICT Kane keeps the reader consistently interested as fact and speculation evocatively intertwine. Highly recommended.—M. Neville, Trenton P.L., NJ