Ere I Saw Elba (The Elba Trilogy Book 2)

“Banks’ writing is truly beautiful, but [Ere I Saw Elba] in particular. It’s like The House at the Edge of Night, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Pachinko—one of those multigenerational epics where you fall into family for generations.”— Sarah Lacy, former TechCrunch journalist, author of Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good.“Vivid characters and an discerning eye for psychological detail make this a fascinating read. Drew Banks is a writer to watch.”— Eliot Schrefer, New York Times-bestselling author and two-time National Book Award finalist"A fascinating examination of a woman claiming her life after trauma.”— Mary Jane Ryan, creator of Random Acts of Kindness series1944, Paris. Following 9-year-old Brigitte Sureau's release from a Nazi internment camp, the reunited Sureaus become France's postwar standard for reconciliation. This notoriety veils the family's quiet disintegration, leading to Brigitte’s lifelong exile on the Italian island of Elba. Fifty years later, a chance encounter in Rome exposes fact from fiction forcing Brigitte to reconsider the single decision that shaped her life.The second in Banks’s Elba trilogy, Ere I Saw Elba explores the lasting impact of childhood trauma that is often compounded by the coping strategies we use to suppress the memory of that trauma.__Drew Banks’s Elba Trilogy—Able Was I, Ere I Saw Elba, and I Before E—is a multigenerational literary fiction series set between New York, Paris, and across Italy, and exploring themes of identity, exile, and chosen family. While these novels can be read independently, there are several characters and situations threaded through the trilogy that add nuance and texture to each story, especially given these characters and situations are conveyed through the lens of the novels' different protagonists.This genre-blending trilogy will captivate readers who enjoy LGBTQ+ literature, coming-of-age journeys, historical fiction, family drama, romance, mysteries, European settings, and evocative “armchair travel” storytelling. Read more