STEFAN HERTMANS is an internationally acclaimed Flemish
author. For more than twenty years he was a professor at the Royal
Academy of Fine Arts, Ghent, where he wrote novels, poems, essays,
and plays. War and Turpentine was awarded the prestigious AKO
Literature Prize in 2014.
Translated from the Dutch by David McKay.
“Potent. . . . Harrowing. . . . War and Turpentine is billed as a
novel, but that's hardly the word for it. It's an uncanny work of
historical reconstruction . . . a gritty yet melancholy account of
war and memory and art that may remind some readers of the work of
the German writer W. G. Sebald.” —The New York Times
“A masterly book about memory, art, love and war. . .
. Affords the sensory pleasures of a good novel while also
conveying the restlessness of memoir. . . . A blast of
narrative fresh air.” —The New York Times Book Review
“A lovingly reimagined life of an ordinary man whose life was
forever marked by the first world war." —The
Economist (Best Book of the Year)
“A rich fictionalized memoir. . . . Death, destruction, obligation,
duty--Urbain faces them all and yet he still finds joy in
life.” —The Times (UK)
“A future classic. . . . A book that lies at the crossroads of
novel, biography, autobiography and history, with inset essays,
meditations, pictures. . . . Every detail has the heightened
luminosity of poetry." —The Guardian
“Wonderful, full of astonishingly vivid moments of powerful
imagery. . . . moving moments of mysterious beauty. . .
. Brilliantly captures the intractable reality of a complex
man." —Sunday Times (UK)
"Using the methods of narrative collage. . . and affectionate
detective work—the writer evokes his grandfather's life in full. .
. . Hertmans provides a richly detailed excavation of a life
and a thoughtful exploration of familial memory." —Kirkus
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
