Let It Destroy You

Reviews

Praise for Let It Destroy You and Harriet Alida Lye:

Winner, Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Fiction 
Vine National Canadian Jewish Book Awards (Fiction), Shortlist

"Drawing on letters and other documents of the time, the author invites us into the marriage of August and June Snow, as they await August’s trial at the International War Crimes Court. August has been accused of patenting a more lethal variation of the atomic bomb. His reason for developing this terrifying technology is not for the destruction it could unleash but as a desperate attempt to save his child. This compelling novel speaks of power: of individual pride, of gender roles, of world-wide destruction. Both utterly intimate and terrifyingly vast, with gorgeous prose and luminescent intelligence, Harriet Alida Lye challenges the reader to ask the deeply ethical questions about the choices we make in life."—Jury Citation, Vine National Canadian Jewish Book Awards (Fiction)

“A dextrous hand at mood and pace, Toronto writer Lye . . . examines idealism and ambition, intent and outcome, and, with particular acuity, marriage and the complex, unpredictable ways its faltering can play out.” —Toronto Star

“A complex and magnificent drama . . . Lye’s great achievement is the creation of two very different and fully realized first-person narrators, and her storytelling style luxuriates equally in their interiority and their extraordinary circumstances.” —Quill & Quire

“Reading Harriet Alida Lye’s prose is to be given the delicious gift of sinking deeper into the human experience. Let It Destroy You offers us this gift through the remarkable story of June and August, lovers fraught with passion and tension that comes alive on the page, as their pursuits of love and science collide spectacularly. This is a story of how the atomic bomb was born, but it’s also a tender and intelligent exploration of two people trying to understand who they are—and what they’re capable of—through the lens of one another, and the daughter they share. Lye’s singular observations about life and exquisite characterizing details tell us so much about a person, a moment, a feeling. This stunning novel cements her as one of my very favourite writers. Let It Destroy You is exceptional.” —Ashley Audrain, international bestselling author of The Push

“The paradox of loneliness in marriage, the shockwave of parental love—staged against history’s most devastating invention, the story of August and June Snow is a tender, anguished duet, glimmering with intelligence and grace.” — Sarah Henstra, Governor General's Award-winning author of The Red Word

“Let It Destroy You is a strikingly intimate novel with profound reverberations. August and June's love feels as touching as it is cruel, and their determination to protect their daughter will remind you of the staggering potential of science and our search for those little bursts of light in our darkest hours.” —Ellen Keith, bestselling author of The Dutch Wife
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