The Memory of Things by Gae Polisner

Wow!  What a fantastic read.  This was such a beautiful read and one that has just continued to linger with me since I finished it last night.  I'm pretty sure it will be sticking with me for a long time. 

This story is told from the perspective of two main characters, Kyle and the mystery girl he found covered in ash and wearing wings as he returned home on the morning of the attacks of 9/11.  It is told in both narrative and verse and weaves them together beautifully. 

While this is a tragic tale of people directly effected by the attacks of September 11, it is so much more than that.  This is a story, most importantly, of hope.  It teaches us that through tragedy, through disaster, through sadness, we can all find hope that things will be better.  We can all believe in the hope that things will be good again, that things can one day return to normal. 

It is also a story about family and all the ways that our family plays a part in our lives.  About how our family is our life line, our tether to everything that is important to us. 

It is about first love and discovering who we are.  Discovering what are face looks like, even if that means we have to lean all of this through terrible tragedy. 

I can't recommend this book highly enough!!!


From Amazon:

On the morning of September 11, 2001, sixteen-year-old Kyle Donohue watches the first twin tower come down from the window of Stuyvesant High School. Moments later, terrified and fleeing home to safety across the Brooklyn Bridge, he stumbles across a girl perched in the shadows, covered in ash, and wearing a pair of costume wings. With his mother and sister in California and unable to reach his father, a NYC detective likely on his way to the disaster, Kyle makes the split-second decision to bring the girl home. What follows is their story, told in alternating points of view, as Kyle tries to unravel the mystery of the girl so he can return her to her family. But what if the girl has forgotten everything, even her own name? And what if the more Kyle gets to know her, the less he wants her to go home? The Memory of Things tells a stunning story of friendship and first love and of carrying on with our day-to-day living in the midst of world-changing tragedy and unforgettable pain―it tells a story of hope.