I’ve read much historical fiction set during World War I and prohibition, but Meissner focuses on a significant event I knew little about: the Spanish flu epidemic that killed three to five percent of the world’s population. Despite this backdrop, her novel is ultimately a testament to our resiliency and ability to find beauty in the ugliest of places.
Pauline and Tom Bright arrive in Philadelphia with their three daughters less than a year before the flu sweeps through the city. Told in the alternating voices of Willa, Maggie, Evelyn and their mother Pauline, As Bright As Heaven follows the Brights from 1918 to 1926. It is a well-written and enthralling coming-of-age story and family drama.