Yet in the Land of the Living, a work of contemporary/historical fiction takes us into Grace Storey’s deep dive into dual mysteries about her great-great-grandfather and a contemporary soldier injured in Iraq. Grace’s search arises both out of empathy and an attempt to come to terms with her own devastating losses. The novel is structured around Grace’s interpretation of her ancestor’s Civil War letters to his waiting wife in order to find the “truth” of not only the past but in the meaning of life and death. Thematically about the journeys we take in order to deal with suffering and tragedies, the novel offersalternative versions of the climatic events as Grace continues to recast meaning and herself, gaining strength in the search.
