With unflinching intimacy and tenderness, Kristen den Hartog documents the lives of some of the thousands of permanently disabled young Canadians who returned after the conflict, as well as examining the society that greeted them once they arrived. Gripped by the pathos and courage of these lives, and by the empathy of the doctors and nurses who attended to them, my knowledge of my country — and my self — was changed by The Roosting Box. A major accomplishment!
Jane Urquhart, author of The Stone Carvers
Kristen den Hartog has written a deeply moving story of what war can do to the body, and what the spirit can do along the road to recovery. Written with empathy and intimacy, The Roosting Box is a book full of tragedy that ultimately carries a profound message of hope.
Jonathan F. Vance, author of The True Story of the Great Escape: Stalag Luft III, March 1944
Watch an interview! “How This Toronto Hospital Rebuilt Veterans After WWI”
With Jeyan Jeganathan, on TVO’s The Agenda
Whoever you are, I can likely promise you that The Roosting Box … is not like any book you’ve read before. … Kristen den Hartog has brought a piece of Toronto’s history to life, and the effect is pretty dazzling.
Kerry Clare, author of Asking For a Friend
As battles recede in time, the pain they inflict is often softened with memorials, parades, and outbursts of national pride. Kristen den Hartog doesn’t go much for softening. Her carefully researched, beautifully written, altogether fascinating account of Toronto’s Christie Street Hospital in the years during and following the First World War is an unblinking time machine. The Roosting Box compels us to look directly at the result of military action: wounds, burns, amputations, sickness, madness, shattered lives, death. This stunning book is the real history of a war. All war.
David MacFarlane, author of The Danger Tree
The Roosting Box is a wonderful book. Kristen den Hartog has uncovered a little known chapter of medical history that makes a major statement about the ills of war and the war against illness.
Howard Markel, author of Origin Story: The Trials of Charles Darwin
Kristen den Hartog 