I decided to try some of the Oprah Book club selections because I looked at the list and saw a number of books I really liked such as Anna Karenina, Faulkner's Light in August, Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton, etc. This is the current selection.The stories in this book are really good, though heartrending. The author has told all of them through the eyes of children, giving an unsentimental, matter-of-fact realism to them that reminds me of "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich". This has the effect of making them seem even more real, and in some way eternal.
Some of the adults depicted are heroic and others are ignorant and brutal, but the children just are. They simply see things as they happen, and make what sense of them that they can.
The author's writing is wonderful. All the stories are very well-written. You're simply there. Nothing jars or comes across as false or specious.
I wish I knew how to help, how to make things better for children all over the world who are caught up in wars and craziness. There must be something.