Publisher's Synopsis
"After my first book was published, I received some letters". So begins Sigrid Nunez's haunting novel about the poignant and unusual friendship between a writer and a retired army nurse who seeks her out decades after their childhood in the same housing project. Among the letters the narrator receives is one from a Rouenna Zycinski, recalling their old connection and asking if they can meet. Though fascinated by the stories Rouenna tells about her life as a combat nurse in Vietnam, the narrator flatly declines her request that they collaborate on a memoir. It is only later, in the aftermath of Rouenna's shocking death, that the narrator is drawn to write about her friend - and her friend's war. Writing Rouenna's story becomes all - consuming, at once a necessity and the narrator's only consolation. FOR ROUENNA, an unforgettable novel about truth, memory and unexpected heroism by one of the most gifted writers of her generation, is also a remarkable and surprising new look at war.
