book review all the light we cannot see

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A USA Today bestseller and book club favorite!

College student Joe Talbert has the modest goal of completing a writing assignment for an English class. His task is to interview a stranger and write a brief biography of the person. With deadlines looming, Joe heads to a nearby nursing home to find a willing subject. There he meets Carl Iverson, and soon nothing in Joe's life is ever the same. Carl is a dying Vietnam veteran--and a convicted murderer. With only a few months to live, he has been medically paroled to a nursing home, after spending thirty years in prison for the crimes of rape and murder. As Joe writes about Carl's life, especially Carl's valor in Vietnam, he cannot reconcile the heroism of the soldier with the despicable acts of the convict. Joe, along with his skeptical female neighbor, throws himself into uncovering the truth, but he is hamstrung in his efforts by having to deal with his dangerously dysfunctional mother, the guilt of leaving his autistic brother vulnerable, and a haunting childhood memory. Thread by thread, Joe unravels the tapestry of Carl’s conviction. But as he and Lila dig deeper into the circumstances of the crime, the stakes grow higher. Will Joe discover the truth before it’s too late to escape the fallout?

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Seventh Street Books; First Paperback Edition (October 14, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1616149981
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1616149987
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.25 inches
Reviewer: Eclectic Reader
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: "Unburying the Truth"
Review: Twenty-one-year-old Joe Talbert is trying to turn his life around, but the confining cage that has formed around him allows for little movement. He has never known who his father is. His mother is a long-time alcoholic who has become more and more violent, neglectful, and frequently disappears on benders or gets herself arrested. His younger brother, Jeremy, is autistic and needs almost constant supervision. Barely able to afford to do so, Joe leaves his home in Austin, Minnesota, "sneaking off like a boy running away to join a circus," to become a student at the University of Minnesota. The only English class open to him of any interest is a biography class in which he must "interview a complete stranger" because he doesn't want to interview his mom and there is basically no one else in his family who he knows. The thought occurs to him to go to a nursing home to interview a resident there... someone with a long life they can relate to Joe for his required class project, but his plan is dashed when he is informed that most of the residents "cannot take care of themselves. Most of them are suffering from Alzheimer's or dementia or some other neurological condition. They can't remember their own children, much less the details of their lives." There is, however, one exception. The Department of Corrections has paroled a prisoner and sent him to Hillview Manor because he is dying of pancreatic cancer--a convicted murderer who viciously "raped and killed a girl and then burned her body in a shed;" a real "monster" according to the Home's director. Joe Talbert's life is about to take a totally unexpected change of direction.The Life We Bury (2014) is the startling and skillful debut novel by Allen Eskens. Eskens' writing is done with flare. His choices of descriptions are fascinating and vivid and bring to life both time and place. For example, when describing an old apartment building he focuses upon the smell of the place, not the physical structure or its condition. The "odor that permeates" the air gives visitors a "split second of corruption as the taint of decay hits them square in the face." His characters are both realistic and enticing; they are complex individuals whose actions and words often do not reveal their true motivation. The very title of the novel has within it a sense of metaphor. Joe buries "thoughts deep inside, hiding them where they would remain undusted." His mother's drinking and carrying-on reflects an unfulfilled life of deep-seated frustration. Joe's new neighbor, Lila Nash, hides a humiliating past and is an enigma--cold and elusive with Joe, but warm and out-going to his mentally impaired brother.Foremost among the characters with a buried life is Carl Iverson--a former Vietnam veteran and decorated hero who, once accused of the heinous murder of Crystal Marie Hagen actually does all that he can to hasten his trial although doing so is likely to lend itself to him being found guilty. At Hillview Manor Iverson, who is in his mid-sixties but looks "closer to eighty," often refuses his pain medication just as he refuses chemo and spends every day just staring out the window. In Stage Four of his cancer, he may have "less than three thousand hours of life left to live." Surprisingly, after turning down requests for interviews for years, Iverson, knowing he is near death, agrees to be interviewed by Joe Talbert. He tells the young student: "this is my dying declaration. I don't care if anybody reads what you write. I don't even care if you write it down at all... I have to say these words out loud. I have to tell someone the truth about what happened all those years ago. I have to tell someone the truth about what I did."Eskens unveils his story in adroit fashion as Joe, the novel's narrator, learns not only about Carl's past from the dying man, but from transcripts of his trial and a diary written by the victim, some of which is in code--code that was never broken or utilized in the trial. Joe talks to Carl's defense attorney who admits that "it seemed to me that Carl Iverson wanted to go to prison" and also meets a man, Virgil Gray, who served in Vietnam with Carl. Virgil is the sole individual who believes in Carl's innocence--Carl having risked his life to save Virgil in a firefight with the Viet Cong. Further conversations with Berthel Collins, the policeman on the original murder case, and conversations with Detective Max Rupert about the thirty-year-old case further fuels the air of intrigue surrounding Carl Iverson and the sadistic murder of an innocent young girl.Half way through The Life We Bury it becomes obvious that the reader has been plunged into a full-fledged mystery. With Carl's enigmatic declaration that there is a difference between being a killer and a murderer and that he has been both, new evidence that is unearthed, and a second, previously untold terrifying story about an event in Vietnam in which Carl participated, Joe and Lila, become more and more certain that Iverson did not kill the Hagen girl. Even as events escalate in the tension between Joe and his mother over Jeremy's well-being, Joe and Lila set about to discover who is guilty of the teen's murder to clear Iverson's name before he dies. Adding to the allure of Joe and Lila's quest is another long-hidden story about Joe's youth--one that personally, obsessively drives him to uncover the truth.Filled with unimagined revelations, staggering plot twists, unforeseeable violence, and unbridled suspense as time is running out for Iverson The Life We Bury and its readers are propelled by the author to an amazing conclusion--one which is guaranteed to both please and move even the most jaded reader. It is hard to conceive a more satisfying reading experience from a first novel (or many other mystery thrillers) than what Allen Eskens delivers in The Life We Bury. [In his "Acknowledgements" Eskens states a "follow-up novel tentatively titled In the Path of the Beast" is scheduled for release in the fall.]

Reviewer: JHSiess
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: An impressive debut
Review: In his debut novel, author Allen Eskins has crafted a story that is deeply moving and thought-provoking, populated with compelling and empathetic characters, but also a fast-paced mystery. The Life We Bury is replete with surprising plot twists and  long-held secrets, as well as pulse-pounding danger.Joe Talbot grew up in Minnesota with no father, an equally fatherless autistic brother, and an alcoholic bipolar mother. When Joe's maternal grandfather was alive, he brought stability to the family. Joe recalls him as "a quiet man who could command attention with a simple glance or nod, a man who possessed equal parts strength and gentleness and wore them not in layers, but blended like fine leather." However, his grandfather died tragically when Joe was just and since then, Joe's mother has been spiraling further out of control.Through hard work, hiding some of his earnings from his mother, and determination, Joe completed community college and has transferred to the University of Minnesota as a junior. As the story opens, Joe, 21 years old, is working as a bouncer and living in a small apartment with a bathroom across the hall as he pursues his studies. He needs to complete an assignment for his English class: write a biography about an elderly individual. So he proceeds to a senior center in search of a willing participant where the director steers him to Carl Iverson, a convicted murderer dying of pancreatic cancer.Eskins immediately draws his readers into the complexities of Joe's life. No sooner does Joe seem ready to launch into the project for his English class than he's sucked back into the life he left two hours away when his mother is arrested and demands that Joe bail her out. Because she left eighteen-year-old Jeremy home alone, Joe must race back to his mother's apartment to ensure Jeremy is safe. With no alternative arrangements available, Joe takes Jeremy back to his apartment with him and contemplates how he will juggle all of the demands upon him.Of course, Iverson is not an easy person to get to know. Aside from his debilitated physical condition, he was incarcerated for 30 years and is not eager to unburden himself by confessing his crimes to Joe. Joe is naive when he first meets Iverson and immediately gets the sense that there is much to learn about what really happened all those years ago, especially when Iverson cryptically declares that there is a difference between killing and murdering. "I've done both. I've killed . . . and I've murdered. . . . It's the difference between hoping that the sun rises and hoping that it doesn't."Eskins deftly guides readers through Joe's voyage of discovering the truth about Iverson's past, including his service in Vietnam, and how he came to be charged and convicted of murder. In the process, Joe also discovers much about himself, his relationships with his mother and brother, and his own strength and resilience. His is a dangerous journey to the truth and Eskins expertly keeps the action moving at a relentless pace that is all-the-more fraught because he has already made his readers care deeply about Joe, the truth, and his future.  The Life We Bury is a beautifully crafted exploration of forgiveness, redemption, and the high price they often extract. Since he is a lawyer, Eskins get the legal and investigative details just right. But Eskins also proves himself an elegant writer, capable of exploring his characters' emotions and inner turmoil in a deeply effecting, but never over wrought manner.The Life We Bury is an impressive and promising debut novel. And fortunately, Joe's story continues in the sequel, The Shadows We Hide.

Reviewer: audreyrmb5
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Keeps you reading!
Review: Loved the characters. Didn't want to put it down! It was realistic enough and the couple twists weren't crazy/unpredictable or anything but it was still a great story. I did think it was going to be more Carl's story than what it ended up being, but it wasn't disappointing. The plot was well balanced and it all came together nicely.

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I enjoyed every bit of this book and found it hard to put down. The characters were well written, so I could easily "see and hear" them in my mind. The story line itself was very compelling. All in all, this book is well worth reading, with enough twists and turns to keep a person engaged all the way through.

Reviewer: Eo Oe
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: The crime story part of this book may be a bit straightforward: it reminded me of the Hardy Boys books I used to read as a kid. But the characters in this adventure story come to live in an extraordinary touching way. I would have loved the book to go on a bit more.

Reviewer: Amazon Kunde
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: The book came on time and was in very good condition (new), but I guess it won't stay long this way because it belongs to the kind of books who want to read and re-read. Although the whole plot was not really original (you can quicly guess what's going to happen), the characters that are depicted are really realistic and go under your skin. The hero is not a good-looking guy, Mr. perfect, but he is not a bad-boyish "ugly duckling" either. He is just someone who struggles a lot but try to keep its shit together. He has envy, he can be jealous of his autistic brother, just because he has better looks. And yes, he wants to impress the girl, living next door, who has quite a story herself too. She is not that pretty cheerleader, but she is not that dark lost soul either. She is just someone who had a hard time, but does not blame the world for it. And she has brains too.In all, without saying too much: alone for the main character's backstories, you should definitely buy this book. I di not say on purpose too much, to not spoil the story. But there is way more behind this two persons. The author knows the human nature as it really is (far away from clichés) and knows how to write a good story.

Reviewer: Cláudio MB
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Um suspense de alto nível.O personagem principal , Joe Talbert , um estudante iniciando a faculdade , tem que fazer trabalho biográfico.Por um acaso do destino , o entrevistado é Carl Iverson, veterano do Vietnam, que cumpria pena de 30 anos por assassinato.Ao longo das conversas entre os dois , e através de pesquisas do estudante , muita coisa é descoberta e com isto a história vai se modificando .O autor tem um estilo muito interessante.Procura não cair no lugar comum .O livro prende o leitor . Ótima leitura e distração para os que gostam do tema .

Reviewer: Kindle Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Great story, great grammar, story flows nicely, creditable storyline.Highly recommend. Really couldn't put book down.Thoroughly enjoyed this book.