In August: We Carry What We Bury, author Ian Hanes explores a powerful idea: the truths people hide do not disappear. They remain beneath the surface, influencing choices, relationships and entire generations. Throughout the novel, buried memories and unspoken losses shape the characters just as strongly as the events they openly acknowledge.
At the centre of the story is August Harper, a talented basketball player from Lebanon, Kansas. As a young man, August seems destined for a promising future. He has the ability to earn a scholarship, leave his small farming community and pursue a life beyond the expectations placed on him. However, his relationship with Rose changes the direction of his life.
Rose is a bright and determined Black teenager who dreams of becoming a civil rights lawyer. She and August develop a loving connection, but the racism of 1970s small-town America forces them to keep much of their relationship hidden. Their feelings are expressed through private conversations, quiet meetings and glances exchanged when no one else is watching.
This secrecy becomes one of the novel’s first buried truths. Their love is real, but society does not allow them to live it openly. When Rose dies tragically while trying to reach August’s championship basketball game, the truth of their relationship is left largely unspoken. August loses not only the person he loves, but also the opportunity to explain what she meant to him.
Instead of confronting his grief publicly, August carries it in silence. He turns away from basketball scholarships and remains on the family farm. To others, his decisions may appear strange or disappointing. Yet beneath them lies a grief that never fully leaves him. Rose’s death becomes the hidden force behind the man August grows into.
The novel shows that buried truths do not affect only the person who hides them. They also shape families. August later raises his son, John, with patience, loyalty and a strong belief in fairness. John inherits his father’s basketball talent and sense of justice, but he also grows up surrounded by parts of August’s past that remain unexplained.
Through their relationship, Ian Hanes reveals how silence can pass from one generation to another. Children may not know the exact story behind a parent’s sadness, fear or protectiveness, but they often feel its influence. John carries the consequences of a history he did not personally create.
Buried truths also appear in the novel’s stories set in Iraq and Lebanon. Layla grows up with unanswered questions surrounding her father’s disappearance under Saddam Hussein’s regime. Her family’s experiences of political violence, displacement and refugee life become part of her identity. Even after she builds a loving home with Bahri, the past remains present.
Across Kansas, Baghdad and Beirut, characters carry missing names, lost homes, unresolved grief and memories that governments or communities would rather forget. These hidden histories connect people who may otherwise appear completely different.
One of the novel’s most meaningful developments comes when Rose is finally remembered by her full name, Rosalind “Rose” Carter. Her recognition restores the identity that silence and prejudice had denied her. She is no longer merely a forgotten girl in an unmarked grave. She becomes a person whose life, dreams and love are acknowledged.
August: We Carry What We Bury suggests that truth may remain hidden for years, but it continues to shape the living. Ian Hanes’ moving novel reminds readers that healing begins when silence is broken, names are restored and the past is finally given the dignity of being remembered.
