Both novels deal with a huge, tragic fact of American history - Vietnam in one case, slavery in the other.

The tragic fact is none of you have missed me.

Only the tragic fact was that this heinous crime actually did indeed take place.

Murders happened, as tragic a fact as that was.

Altaf and few others like him did never return, could never be traced, a tragic fact well known to us today.

In her agony, Margo Lane had forgotten a tragic fact.

It's a tragic fact that children most in need of sensitive care, those living in institutions, are sometimes the least likely to get it.

They all knew that to be a tragic fact.

Unfortunately for the victim, this is a tragic fact.

The tragic fact, however, is that those people who are affected today were most probably infected in the mid eighties to early nineties.