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Recommended books Richard and Judy Book Club

Random Acts of Heroic Love – Danny Scheinmann

Books before blogging review.

It has been almost a year since I finished reading this amazing book, and I can still vividly remember the power of emotion it contained.

From the very first page I was totally hooked. It tells two, interweaved tales . The first is set in 1992, and follows Leo Deakin, who wakes up in a South American hospital to discover that his girlfriend has died in the bus crash he survived. As he begins to remember what happened, he is plagued by the guilt that he was in some way to blame for her death.

The second story is set in 1917, and follows Mortis Daniecki, as he escapes from a POW camp and makes an epic journey across Europe, to return to the love of his life.

The story of Leo, is semi auto-biographical, as the author, Danny Scheinmann, also lost his girlfriend at a young age. Mortis’s story is based on the real events of Danny Scheinmann’s Grandfather’s life, as explained in an epilogue to the book. I think that the fact the author has experienced a lot of the events described in the book really shows. The raw emotion is hard to ignore; it is the small, well observed details that make it all so realistic. I don’t think I have ever read a book which explores the issues of grief and love so well.

I highly recommend this book, it is one of my favourite books of 2008, and will probably be in my all time top ten. It is released in the US and Canada in 2009, so keep an eye out for it!

6 replies on “Random Acts of Heroic Love – Danny Scheinmann”

Great review, I have seen this book several times and for some reason never quite bought it, think now will have to add it to the ever increasing TBR! Or I could enter your giveaway!

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