For Rouenna

""After my first book was published I received some letters."". "So begins Sigrid Nunez's haunting novel about the poignant and unusual friendship between a novelist and the retired army nurse who seeks her out. Among the letters the narrator receives is one from a Rouenna Zycinski, who recalls a forgotten childhood connection and asks for a meeting. First wary, then fascinated by the stories Rouenna tells about her life as a combat nurse in Vietnam, the narrator flatly declines her request that they collaborate on a memoir. Only later, in the aftermath of Rouenna's shocking death, is the…