Kathleen Novak’s STEEL is a quietly-told, beautifully-crafted epic tragedy about searching for an adult purpose and an adult place in the world, when that world seems to be collapsing all around. The story is told from multiple perspectives, from the point of view of characters directly involved in the action as it takes place, as well as that of the protagonist’s aging younger brother remembering the events as family history from the distant perspective of the present day. We readers, therefore, get a multidimensional view, giving us the chance to identify and sympathize with all of the characters, from the passive but enduring Marie Babić and her gruff husband Jocco to their son Tony, trying to figure out what it means to be a man in a grim and unforgiving world, from his sweetheart Vita, an intelligent and beautiful young woman trying to figure out what her choices are and what she wants out of life and love, to Luka, the miner turned cop in Chicago, determined to stay honest even in a city run by Al Capone, to Johnny, the once-adoring younger brother, now an old man musing sadly over the family tragedy.

Novak’s unfolds the plot of the story gracefully and naturally, event leading to event in quiet but inexorable fashion, drawing us in to care deeply about the characters and their lives, so that the final plot twist hits like a blow. The parallels between Tony’s life in the mines and Luka’s in the police force are subtly and deftly drawn, with resilience and persistence on one side set against the despair and unraveling on the other. The writing is beautifully evocative, describing people and places so expressively that the reader feels directly present amidst them all, and the emotional force of the story is only enhanced by the simple, heartbreakingly straightforward language in which it is presented, not distorted by histrionics or hidden by elaborate, florid prose. There is suffering in this book, and struggle, deep injustice and great grief, presented with a tender but merciless clarity that leaves the reader almost as shaken in the end as those left behind. All in all, it’s an incredibly well-crafted, beautifully-designed story with all the emotional force of an iron fist in a delicately-embroidered velvet glove.

An evocative, powerful book about growing up in an immigrant community, STEEL draws its readers in with well-drawn, three-dimensional characters and a beautifully-crafted plot.

~Catherine Langrehr for IndieReader