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  1 Christmas Bells: A Novel
Author: Chiaverini, Jennifer
 
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Class: Fiction
Age: Adult
Language: English
LC: PS3553.H
Print Run: 100000
ISBN-13: 9780525955245
LCCN: 2015009505
Imprint: Dutton
Pub Date: 10/27/2015
Availability: Out of Print Confirmed
List: $25.95
  Hardcover
Physical Description: 336 pages ; 21 cm H 8.5", W 5.75", D 1.12", 0.9875 lbs.
LC Series:
Brodart Sources: Brodart's Blockbuster List
Brodart's Insight Catalog: Adult
Brodart's TOP Adult Titles
Bibliographies:
Awards:
Starred Reviews:
TIPS Subjects: Historical Fiction
Biographical Fiction
Christmas
BISAC Subjects: FICTION / Historical / General
FICTION / Holidays
FICTION / Literary
LC Subjects: Biographical fiction
Christmas stories
FICTION / Historical
FICTION / Literary
Historical fiction
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth,, 1807-1882, Fiction
Women teachers, Fiction
SEARS Subjects: Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth,, 1807-1882, Fiction
Reading Programs:
 
Annotations
Brodart's TOP Adult Titles | 07/01/2015
Celebrate Christmas past and present as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow faces tragedy and a modern-day Boston teacher finds a new reason to celebrate the season. While the poet who penned 'Christmas Bells' copes with his wife's loss and his anxiety over the son fighting in the Civil War, a modern-day teacher finds new hope in the poet's words while preparing a holiday concert for a special Boston church. 336pp., 100K, Auth res: Madison, WI
Journal Reviews
Booklist | 10/01/2015
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Christmas Bells," a lamentation on the Civil War, is at the center of this uplifting Christmas tale. In Watertown, Massachusetts, Sophia learns that her job as a music teacher is in jeopardy due to budget cuts--great news right before Christmas. She finds solace leading the children's choir at Saint Margaret's Church with lovesick accompanist Lucas. Alex and Charlotte, siblings and choir singers, are distracted by the bad Internet connection in Afghanistan that makes communication with their father impossible. Meanwhile, their mother, Laurie, is afraid to ruin the kids' holidays by telling them he is actually MIA. Each character, including batty Sister Winifred and a politician's widow, gets the chance to narrate a chapter of the story, alternating with Longfellow in the 1860s, first worrying about Southern secessionist rumblings, then mourning his wife, then trying desperately to prevent his oldest son from enlisting in the Union Army, and finally producing the famous poem of the title. Though her novel is a bit slow and strangely repetitive in places, Chiaverini nonetheless hits all the right emotional notes in this heartwarming story. Maguire, Susan. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2015.
Kirkus Reviews | 08/15/2015
Preparing for Christmas in Cambridge, Massachusetts, church members face challenges aided by faith and friends and inspired by the eponymous poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow--who, in an alternate storyline, fights despair as he confronts personal tragedy and the Civil War. Christmas is fast approaching, and St. Margaret's Catholic Church is a hub of activity. The children's choir, under Sophia's talented guidance, is practicing its program, which includes "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," the lovely carol based on the poem by Cambridge's own Longfellow. Sophia is determined to remain optimistic this season, despite her recently broken engagement and the threat of losing her job next spring. After all, these children lift her spirits, and she can always depend on Lucas, the saintly accompanist, to be there for her. Particularly talented are the red-haired siblings, serious Charlotte and precocious Alex, whose father is serving with the National Guard in Afghanistan and whose mother is overwhelmed by the crushing news that her beloved husband is missing, a fact she's trying to keep secret. Father Ryan loves his calling and his congregants and is doing his best to aid them in their trials even as he navigates his own fractured family. The odd but cheerful, elderly Sister Winifred offers help and reassurance with eerily perfect timing and perception. Meanwhile, in a separate historical storyline that is lightly attached to the contemporary one, we follow Longfellow through the Civil War and the life-altering events that tested his faith and nearly crushed his spirit. Chiaverini stitches together a series of lightly interlocking contemporary vignettes in an intriguing way and manages to tuck away all the ragged edges in the emotionally satisfying conclusion. In the background are Longfellow's tragic Civil War-era experiences, which, while poignant, feel emotionally distant. A gentle exploration of tragedy, hope, the power of Christmas, and the possibility of miracles. 336pg. KIRKUS MEDIA LLC, c2015.
Library Journal | 10/15/2015
Inspired by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "Christmas Bells," Chiaverini (Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker) intersperses the story of how Longfellow came to write the poem with the stories of several people connected to St. Margaret's, a church in contemporary Boston. In the early 1860s, Longfellow is mourning the death of his wife and worrying about his son on the Civil War battlefields while in the present a music teacher faces the loss of her job, a family worries about their missing father in Afghanistan, and brothers clash. With a little help from Sister Winifred, however, those at St. Margaret's find the hope and joy of the season as they sing a hymn inspired by Longfellow's words. VERDICT Chiaverini writes a heartfelt story of Christmases past and present. [See Prepub Alert, 4/6/15.]. Melissa DeWild. 304p. LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2015.
Library Journal Prepub Alert | 04/06/2015
Though she sets her new work partly in present-day Boston, Chiaverini stays in keeping with her recent historical work (e.g., Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule) by referencing Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's rousing "Christmas Bells." Written as Longfellow mourned the death of his wife and his son's departure to fight for the Union, the poem is also sung as a hymn and inspires a teacher burdened with bad news who had been dreading her participation in a church holiday concert. Barbara Hoffert. 288p. LJ Prepub Alert Online Review. LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2015.
9780525955245,dl.it[0].title