Here's what I wrote in 2008 about this read: "Required a prompt to recall, but then there. Good tale, describing family's coming to terms with loss of a daughter to Italian terrorists. Good read, but no classic." ( )

While traveling in Italy in 1980, the twenty-two-year-old eldest daughter of the Woodhull family is killed in a terrorist attack. Her parents live in rural Illinois. Her father,“Woody” Woodhull, is a college professor whose life goes off the rails in the aftermath of the tragedy. Her mother has a breakdown and joins a convent. The book is told in alternating perspectives of Woody and middle daughter, Sarah.

I liked the writing style and Sarah’s chapters. The narrative related to a family divided by grief is heartbreaking. Woody’s chapters are too disturbing for my taste (horrific injuries from a terrorist attack, an affair between a professor and student, and many graphic sex scenes). I have enjoyed other novels by this author, but this one is not for me. ( )

I loved this - excellent writing. ( )

As the father of four daughters, I found this story very engaging and moving, especially the way the relationship between the father and his second daughter deepened after the eldest daughter's death. I was especially moved when, as the father and daughter are discussing the mother's new religion and the Christian belief that God gave his only begotten son as the redeemer of humanity, the daughter asks if God would have given his only begotten daughter. I still choke up every time, even nine years later, that I recall the father's answer. No, he replied, not even God could do that. A true father-of-daughters answer.

I wanted to like this book, but I was really disliked the graphic sexual descriptions. I understand the sex and its purpose in Whoody's life and his "vita nuova," but I don't see the need to make it like you are reading erotica in places. The prose goes along beautifully and then you are struck in the face with c&nt and c#ck. I just don't get it. I'm not a prude, it just seemed SO out of place. ( )