title: The Report: A Novel
author:  Jessica Francis Kane 
description: Kane (Bending Heaven) explores the fallout from a catastrophe that occurred in war-weary 1943 London to mixed results; the historical material and characters are wonderful, but the plot is deeply contrived. The newly built Bethnal Green tube station was serving as an air-raid shelter when 173 people suffocated to death in a mystifying pile-up in a stairwell. As rumors swell about possible causes, magistrate Laurence Dunne is assigned to investigate. Kane skillfully reimagines the empathetic Dunne as he interprets the confessions and accusations of a community crushed by loss and guilt. In a linked narrative set in 1973, Paul, who was orphaned in the tragedy, tries to persuade Dunne to be interviewed as part of a documentary he's directing. Meticulous historical detail and vivid descriptions of hunkered-down and rationed East Enders add a marvelous texture, but Kane runs into trouble by trying to establish that the tangle of noble and selfish intentions that contributed to the calamity can't be unknotted, while simultaneously tugging on a stubborn thread that will, for the sake of plot, prove the opposite. <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  **Copyright © 2015 Sierra Simone**
  
   **All rights reserved.**
  
   **No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted
  in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other
  electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the
  author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews.**
  
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  **This is a work of fiction. References to real people, places, organizations,
  events, and products are intended to provide a sense of authenticity and are
  used fictitiously. All characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the
  author’s imagination and not to be construed as real.**
  
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  **Cover by Date Book Designs 2015**
  
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  **To Linda and Sarah and Candi, who help me hide.**
  
  Trigger Warning: Part of Molly’s story depicts her wrestling with a
  nonconsensual sexual event in her past. As a survivor of sexual assault