WAR AND TURPENTINE

Resumen del libro

This is selected as a Book of the Year 2016 in The Times and Sunday Times, and one of the 10 Best Books of 2016 in the New York Times. Shortly before his death at the age of 90, Stefan Headman' grandfather Urbain gave his grandson a set of notebooks. As Stefan began to read, he found himself drawn into a conversation across the centuries, as Urbain - so quiet and reserved in life - revealed his eloquence and his private passions on the page.Gradually, as he learned of his grandfather's heroics in the First World War, the loss of his great love, and his later years spent seeking solace in art and painting, a portrait emerged of the grandfather he had never fully known. War and Turpentine is an exquisite, loving reconstruction of a man's interior life, at once deeply personal and yet so evocative of many of his generation, affected by the long shadow of war. In beautiful, glimmering prose, Hertmans shows us how our experiences shape us all, and how, even in a life of sorrow and heartache, dignity can be found.

Biografía del autor

Stefan Hertmans (1951) fue profesor de la Academia de Bellas Artes de Gante, y es considerado uno de los escritores en neerlandés más importantes de la actualidad. Ha publicado novelas, libros de cuentos, ensayos y poesía, y ha sido distinguido en Holanda y en Flandes con galardones tan prestigiosos como el Premio de Poesía del Estado Belga, que recibió en 1995. Guerra y trementina ha cosechado encendidos elogios de la crítica tanto en su país como en todos aquellos donde se ha publicado traducido, y ha ganado el Premio ECI 2014, el Premio de las Letras Flamencas 2014 y el Premio del Lector Gouden Boekenuil 2014, además de ser finalista del Man Booker Prize 2017.