Ere I Saw Elba

By Drew Banks

Book Overview

1944, Paris. Following 9-year-old Brigitte Sureau's release from a Nazi internment camp, the reunited Sureaus become France's postwar standard for reconciliation. This notoriety veils the family's quiet disintegration, leading to Brigitte's lifelong exile on the Italian island of Elba. Fifty years later, a chance encounter in Rome exposes fact from fiction forcing Brigitte to reconsider the single decision that shaped her life.

The second in Banks's Elba trilogy, Ere I Saw Elba explores the lasting impact of childhood trauma that is often compounded by the coping strategies we use to suppress the memory of that trauma.

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Drew Banks's Elba Trilogy-Able Was I, Ere I Saw Elba, and I Before E-is a multigenerational literary fiction series set between New York, Paris, and across Italy, and exploring themes of identity, exile, and chosen family. While these novels can be read independently, there are several characters and situations threaded through the trilogy that add nuance and texture to each story, especially given these characters and situations are conveyed through the lens of the novels' different protagonists.

This genre-blending trilogy will captivate readers who enjoy LGBTQ+ literature, coming-of-age journeys, historical fiction, family drama, romance, mysteries, European settings, and evocative "armchair travel" storytelling.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GRGRDJL7
• ISBN13: 9798348562212
• Release Date: March 2026
• Publisher: Dot Dash Press
• Length: 302 Pages
• Weight: 0.89 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"