Good Night, Irene

By Luis Alberto Urrea

Book Overview

This New York Times bestselling novel tells an exhilarating World War II epic that chronicles an extraordinary young woman's heroic frontline service in the Red Cross.

"Urrea's touch is sure, his exuberance carries you through ... He is a generous writer, not just in his approach to his craft but in the broader sense of what he feels necessary to capture about life itself." --Financial Times​

In 1943, Irene Woodward abandons an abusive fianc in New York to enlist with the Red Cross and head to Europe. She makes fast friends in training with Dorothy Dunford, a towering Midwesterner with a ferocious wit. Together they are part of an elite group of women, nicknamed Donut Dollies, who command military vehicles called Clubmobiles at the front line, providing camaraderie and a taste of home that may be the only solace before troops head into battle.

After D-Day, these two intrepid friends join the Allied soldiers streaming into France. Their time in Europe will see them embroiled in danger, from the Battle of the Bulge to the liberation of Buchenwald. Through her friendship with Dorothy, and a love affair with a courageous American fighter pilot named Hans, Irene learns to trust again. Her most fervent hope, which becomes more precarious by the day, is for all three of them to survive the war intact.

Taking as inspiration his mother's own Red Cross service, Luis Alberto Urrea has delivered an overlooked story of women's heroism in World War II. With its affecting and uplifting portrait of friendship and valor in harrowing circumstances, Good Night, Irene powerfully demonstrates yet again that Urrea's "gifts as a storyteller are prodigious" (NPR).

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316265950
• ISBN13: 9780316265959
• Release Date: June 2024
• Publisher: Little, Brown Paperbacks
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.6" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

A Wonderful Novel Based on a True Story of Women Serving Coffee & Donuts to Soldiers in War Zones

I had no idea that volunteers for the Red Cross were sent into war zones during WWII to serve coffee and donuts to soldiers after D-Day. The main character is based on the author's mother's experiences. The book is so interesting. The Club Mobile starts out in England during the blitz and goes on to France, Belgium and eventually into Germany. The women are shot at, witness entire towns that have been destroyed, dead bodies everywhere and even go to a death camp right after it is liberated to see the atrocities. I highly recommend this book.