She lives in Chicago with her spouse, writer Martin Seay. A winner of the Ruth Lilly Fellowship from Poetry magazine, she is the author of nine books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Inspired by true events of World War I, Kathleen Rooney resurrects two long-forgotten yet unforgettable figures, recounting their tale in a pair of voices that will change the way readers look at animals, freedom, and even history itself. Her new novel, Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey, based on a true story of the Great War, will be published by Penguin in August of 2020. Answering the call to serve in the war to end all wars, neither Cher Ami, the messenger bird, nor Charles Whittlesey, the army officer, can anticipate how their lives will briefly intersect in a chaotic battle in the forests of France, where their wills will be tested, their fates will be shaped, and their lives will emerge forever altered.Ī saga of hope and duty, love and endurance, as well as the claustrophobia of fame, Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey is a tragic yet life-affirming war story that the world has never heard. Major Charles Whittlesey was their leader. 77th Division found themselves surrounded by Germans in the Argonne Forest. World War I, France On October 1, 1918, about 550 soldiers of the U.S. Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey is brilliant and surprising at every turn.'-Rebecca Makkai, Pulitzer finalist for The Great BelieversĪ heart-tugging and gorgeously written novel based on the incredible true story of a WWI messenger pigeon and the soldiers whose lives she forever altered, from the author of Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk.įrom the green countryside of England and the gray canyons of Wall Street come two unlikely heroes: one a pigeon and the other a soldier. The Lost Battalion and Cher Ami Novemby Lisa Waller Rogers Lost Battalion in Argonne Forest by Frank E.

Cher ami and major whittlesey