Some novels entertain readers for a few hours. Others create an emotional connection that remains long after the final page. Ian Hanes’ August: We Carry What We Bury belongs to the second category. Through its exploration of love, grief, injustice, family and memory, the novel invites readers to care deeply about people whose lives are shaped by both personal tragedy and historical events.
At the heart of the story is August Harper, a talented young basketball player living in Lebanon, Kansas. During the 1970s, August becomes the pride of his small community. His skill gives him the possibility of earning a scholarship and building a life beyond the family farm. However, the future he imagines changes when he falls in love with Rose.
Rose is intelligent, humorous and ambitious. She dreams of becoming a civil rights lawyer and making her community a fairer place. Yet as a young Black woman in a predominantly white Kansas town, she is constantly aware of prejudice. Her relationship with August must develop quietly through private conversations, exchanged glances and moments shared away from the judgment of others.
This hidden relationship is one reason the story feels so emotional. Rose and August are not asking for anything extraordinary. They simply want the freedom to care for each other openly. Because society denies them that freedom, every small moment between them becomes more meaningful. A conversation after basketball practice or a brief ride home carries the emotional weight of a future they may never be allowed to share.
The novel’s most heartbreaking turning point comes on the night of August’s championship game. Rose is rushing to reach the arena when she is killed in a tragic accident. At the exact moment August experiences his greatest public victory, he suffers the loss that will quietly define the rest of his life.
August does not openly explain his grief. Instead, readers see it through his decisions. He rejects scholarship opportunities, remains on the farm and carries Rose’s memory into adulthood. His silence makes the pain feel even more authentic. Grief does not always appear through dramatic speeches. Sometimes it is found in the paths people refuse to take and the places they continue to visit.
Rose’s narration adds another emotional layer. Speaking from beyond the grave, she watches August grow older, raise his son John and live with the consequences of their unfinished story. Her voice contains warmth, humour and affection, but it also carries the sadness of someone who can see the life she was denied.
The novel expands beyond Kansas to include lives shaped by Baghdad and Beirut. Through Layla, Bahri and their family, Ian Hanes explores dictatorship, forced migration, refugee life, political violence and the Beirut port explosion. These storylines show that grief takes different forms but remains universally human.
What connects the characters is not only what they have lost, but what they continue to carry. Some carry memories of people who disappeared. Others carry homes they were forced to leave, names that were forgotten or truths that remained buried for decades.
Ultimately, August: We Carry What We Bury is emotional because it treats every life as worthy of remembrance. It shows how love can survive death, how silence can shape generations and how restoring a forgotten name can become an act of justice. Ian Hanes has created a compassionate and wide-ranging novel that reminds readers that healing begins when the lives hidden by history are finally seen and remembered.
