War and Turpentine
New York : Pantheon Books, [2016]
Format: Book
Edition: First American edition.
Description: 290 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
"In this vivid and masterful novel, a Flemish man reconstructs his grandfather's story--his life, loves, and art, all disrupted by the first World War--from the unflinching notebooks he left behind. Short Description War and Turpentine centers on two men distanced by time: a religious painter whose life is changed forever by World War One; and his grandson, a writer reckoning with his grandfather's story. The life of Urbain Martien--artist, soldier, survivor of the incomprehensible--lies contained in two notebooks written before his death in 1981. His grandson, a writer, imagines his way into the locked chambers of Urbain's memory: retouching church paintings as a boy, dodging death in an iron foundry, and, ultimately, fighting the war that altered the course of human history. There is Urbain's father, the lowly church painter; Urbain's wife, Gabrielle, his true love's sister; and Urbain's canvas, the ever-present reminder of the artist he wanted to be and the soldier he was forced to become. Wrestling with this story, the narrator straddles past and present, searching for a place in both. As artfully rendered as a Renaissance fresco, War and Turpentine paints the extraordinary story of one man's life and the echo of its impact resounding through the generations. Translated from the Dutch by David McKay"-- Provided by publisher.
Subjects:
Grandfathers -- Fiction.
Grandsons -- Fiction.
Life change events -- Fiction.
World War, 1914-1918 -- Influence -- Fiction.
Grandfathers -- Fiction.
Grandsons -- Fiction.
Life change events -- Fiction.
World War, 1914-1918 -- Influence -- Fiction.
ISBN:
9781101874028 (hardback)
Availability | |||
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Call Number | Location | Shelf Location | Status |
F Hertmans | Main (Downtown) | Second Level, Fiction | In |
F Hertmans | Main (Downtown) | Second Level, Fiction | In |
F Hertmans | Main (Downtown) | Second Level, Fiction | In |
More Formats
Previously published in Dutch as Oorlog en terpentijn (Amsterdam : De Bezige Bij, 2013); English translation originally published by Harvill Secker in 2016, in London.