Worth reading, a very powerful account of the shifting emotions which certainly had to be present during the aftermath of the 911 era.

This book about reactions to an architectural contest to design a 9-11 memorial is worth reading. I wish the author would've focused on one or two characters but she writes about numerous characters, not a main character. I thought at times that the story was too predictable but there was a surprise at the end. Curiously the perpetrator was never found or even apparently sought. Even though I wasn't always enthralled, I find myself thinking of the characters even after finishing the book. Maybe the author would be well pleased with that outcome.

All hell breaks loose in Manhattan when a blind competition for the memorial at Ground Zero is won by a Muslim American. Waldman tells her story from a multitude of viewpoints providing a complex look at the survivors, politicians, Muslims, journalists and others who have a stake in the results. With her journalistic eye, Waldman writes a story that is reality. The writing is sensitive, funny and incisive, and the plot compelling.

"The central character of Amy Waldman’s novel is Claire Harwell, whose husband died in the destruction of the World Trade Centre towers, leaving her with two children to raise on her own. She becomes a spokeswoman for the other grieving 9/11 widows, and finds herself sitting on a jury to select a plan to memorialize the attack’s victims." Globe & Mail