Mary Doria Russell has created another winner in her new book Dreamers of the Day. It is the story of a school teacher Agnes Shanklin, who survives the great influenza and left without family embarks on a trip to the Middle East with her 'flawed' but beloved dachshund. Here she encounters some notable historic figures such as Winston Churchill, Mrs. Churchill and T. E. Lawrence. While the plot is not as intricate as her complex historical tale A Thread of Grace where we follow the Italian resistance at the end of WWII, we do however find Agnes at the Cairo peace conference attended by notable historic presences. Agnes is a well developed character that I found myself rooting for, as I watched her transformation. But I wished for more of the friends I had found in her other novels such as Emilio Sandoz, the Jesuit priest in The Sparrow, or Sophia, the AI expert in the Children of God. These characters, like Agnes and her dog Rosie, will linger as friends in the back of my mind for a long while. I felt as if I knew them all personally. All in all it was a good read, the disappointments were in comparison to the fabulous historical complexity of Russell's A Thread of Grace and in searching for traces not only of the old friends I had found in The Sparrow and Children of God, but in the sheer level of inventiveness that I found in this pair of books. Mary Doria Russell is one of those authors that I find myself eagerly awaiting their next new work. She writes with an intensity that captures and holds you throughout the book, and leaves you waiting for more. A recommended read! This review was based on the Advance Reader's Edition.
Mary Jones
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