Wild with All Regrets: A Novel

(Paperback)

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A decade has passed since Lucas Connolly lost his best friendand the only man hes ever lovedin World War I, but he still cant shake his guilt over Jamies death. In fact, ever since losing Jamie, Lucas has heard his friends voice inside his headconfused about what happened to him, begging him for help. And now, suddenly, its not just Jamies voice anymore; now, a specter who looks and acts exactly like Jamie did before his death, and who is demanding answers from Lucas about what happened to him, has begun to haunt him.

Concerned about Lucass deteriorating mental state, his friend Angela encourages him to move on with his life, and even sets him up with a coworker whom she suspects is also gay. But Lucas is too consumed with the secret he still keeps about the part he played in Jamies death to even begin to form a healthy connection with someone newand as Jamies ghost begins to recover his memories and get closer to the truth, Lucass obsession only deepens.

Ultimately, Lucas realizes that his only path forward is to first go backwardthat only in examining his troubled youth, facing his deepest self, and shining a light on the shadowed parts of his past will he finally be able to set his old friend, and himself, free.

Reviews

As much a tragic romance as it is a war drama, the historical novel Wild with All Regrets delves into sensitive topics with grace and tact . . . brilliant and sensory . . . a powerful novel in which a grieving man endures the shame of a lost love in a time and place when homophobia reigned.
Foreword Clarion Reviews

From life on the mean and gritty streets of Dublin to survival in the harrowing trenches of the Western Front, we follow Lucas Connolly, a gentle and emotionally battered boy with too many secrets for his tender heart to hold. Emma Deards has written a brave, bold, and essential novel, one that both challenges our assumptions about love and forces us to a broader and deeper understanding of it. Unflinching and original. . . . A book whose effects will linger long after the final page is turned.
Kitty Zeldis, author of Two Daughters and Not Our Kind

A sensitive portrayal of a love affair between two young men shattered in the aftermath of the Great War.
Susan Weinstein, author of The Anarchists Girlfriend and Paradise Gardens

Set in the era of World War One, Wild with All Regrets is a gripping page turner that takes an unflinchingly honest yet abidingly tender look at how we strive for hope and love despite the haunting violenceincluding poverty, bigotry, and warfarethis world can inflict. The characters of Lucas and Jamie will both fill and break your heart.
Judith Claire Mitchell, author of A Reunion of Ghosts

Author Bio

Emma Deards grew up in New York City and earned her undergraduate degree at Barnard College at Columbia University , where she studied Japanese literature and biology. She was then accepted to The University of Edinburgh, where she completed her veterinary degree. She remained in the UK afterward, and since then has split her time between her day job as a vet and her truest passion: writing. Emma has authored a number humor articles for In Practice, a veterinary magazine, and was the recipient in college of two writing awards: Oscar Lee Award and the Harumatsuri Award. Wild with All Regret is her first book. She lives in Manchester, England.