*Starred Review* While the secrets in a small Ontario town after WWI may impede relationships, secrets also serve to maintain the social fabric in this moving sequel to Itani's acclaimed novel, Deafening (2003). Kenan Oak returns home from the war in late 1919, damaged and disfigured, keeping to himself except for visits with his wife Tress' uncle, Am O'Neill, and sharing his wartime experiences only in letters to a tubercular former comrade. Am is unable to talk, even about his physical condition, with his wife of 20 years, Maggie, a gifted singer who is becoming increasingly involved with her choral society and its European music director, Lukas Sebastian. Bracketing the story with events from late 1920 and early 1921, Itani recounts the happenings of a year earlier, as Kenan works on regaining his balance, with his now-useless left arm, on the town's skating pond, and Maggie and her close friend Zel practice for the New Year's Eve concert, a major town event. A final secret binds the Oaks and O'Neills in a new and permanently lasting way. Told in Itani's wonderfully lucid and fluid prose, this is a beautiful story of love and loss in their many manifestations.--Leber, Michele Copyright 2014 Booklist

This heartening novel from Itani (Deafening) concerns the different tribulations of two households forced to grapple with in the aftermath of World War I. A maimed infantryman having recuperated from his injuries, Kenan Oak returns to his rural hometown of Deseronto, Ontario. He still suffers probably from what is today diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder, and becomes a housebound recluse while his beleaguered wife, Tress, works in her parents' hotel kitchen. Although he picks up side work as a bookkeeper, he laments their unhappy, childless marriage. However, all hope isn't lost in this tale of recovery: Kenan renews his boyhood passion for ice skating and corresponds with his old army friend Hugh recuperating from tuberculosis in Britain. Kenan is only able to confide in Tress's middle-aged uncle Am O'Neil, an ex-farmer and now apartment maintenance man, who copes with his own strained marriage to Maggie. She works at the library and leans on her friend Zel Jackson for her support. Blessed with a "wonderful soprano voice," Maggie loves singing in the choral society directed by the charismatic Lukas Sebastian who, unlike Am, is able to communicate with her. Their romantic affair sets in motion the complications that impact the Oak and O'Neil families. Their lives soon take several life-changing turns in Itani's sensitive, well-written novel, full of a cast of strong characters. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

A culture of silence prevails in a small Canadian town, affecting two at-risk marriages and one damaged Great War vet.That would be Kenan Oak, who volunteered enthusiastically in 1914 as a 20-year-old and returned in 1918 to his hometown on Lake Ontario with a useless left arm and eye. Only now, in November 1919, does the still shellshocked Kenan leave his house. He doesn't speak much to his wife, Tress, though they do make love. Tress is the link to this Canadian author's best-known novel, Deafening (2003), which described her younger sister Grania becoming deaf as a child and her purposeful navigation through a silent world. (Grania is mentioned here but does not appear.) Itani made Grania's journey vivid; she has a harder time getting us to care about Kenan's journey back to normality. His leaving the house is a big deal, and his solitary skating on the rink at night a bigger one, yet we stay detached; Kenan's upbringing is a factor. Grania was surrounded by love; Kenan, an orphan, was adopted by a taciturn, ungiving welder. In his slow return to sociability, he's most comfortable with Tress' uncle Am, a handyman who "grew up around silent men." That habit of silence has bedeviled Am's marriage to Maggie O'Neill. "How do we proceed?" Maggie wonders, sounding more like a lawyer than an aggrieved wife. She proceeds nicely enough when she meets Lukas Sebastian, a voice teacher from Europe. He's directing a choral concert in which Maggie will sing solos, and they become lovers. The slow-moving novel circulates among Kenan and Tress, Maggie and Am; an exceptionally awkward ending is summarized in a letter.Though attentive to period detail, Itani seems more constricted than liberated by the past in her sixth novel. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Starred Review. In this sequel to her debut novel, Deafening (2003), Itani picks up her characters' stories one year after the end of World War I. It is close to the holidays in the small Canadian town of Deseronto, Ontario. Kenan, grievously wounded physically and psychologically by the horrors of war, is just now starting to leave the safety of his home, venturing out at night. His wife, Tress, struggles to break through his grief even as she mourns their inability to have children. Tress's Aunt Maggie is the young woman's supportive confidante, though her own marriage to Am continues to erode following the deaths of their young children during a diphtheria epidemic decades earlier. Am's patient presence draws out Kenan, yet Am is still losing Maggie, who is caught up in the quiet appeal of Luc, the choral director, who is preparing her for her three solos in the annual Deseronto New Year's Eve concert. VERDICT Itani's gorgeous gift for writing quietly absorbing stories of torn lives bravely trying to carry on is on full display here with all the power of her previous novels. [See Prepub Alert, 7/28/14.]-Beth Andersen, formerly with Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.