Author:William Faulkner
A group of soldiers travel by train across the United States in the aftermath of the First World War. One of them is horribly scarred, blind and almost entirely mute. Moved by his condition, a few civilian fellow travellers decided to see him home to Georgia, to a family who believed him dead, and a fiancée who grew tired of waiting. Faulkner's first novel deals powerfully with lives blighted by war.
By universal consent of critics and common readers, Faulkner is now recognised as the strongest American novelist of the century, clearly surpassing Ernest Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald, and standing as an equal in the sequence that includes Hawthorne, Melville, Mark Twain and Henry James
—— Harold BloomThere is no writer living who can play upon a scene the rich and Rembrandtesque flame that Faulkner commands
—— Evening StandardHis prose style is all his own, often sensuously alert, evocative, graceful
—— Daily TelegraphHertmans writes with an eloquence reminiscent of W.G. Sebald... a masterly book about memory, art, love and war.
—— New York Times 10 Best Books of 2016A lovingly reimagined life of an ordinary man whose life was for ever marked by the First World War. Fine prose.
—— The Economist, Book of the YearWonderful, full of astonishingly vivid moments of powerful imagery… Hertmans’s book is something else again: it has a quietly resonant personal epic quality that dwarfs all around it.
—— David Mills , Sunday TimesSkilful and lyrical reconstruction of a life transformed by war, love and art… It is not often a book succeeds on many levels, but War and Turpentine manages to be a mesmerising portrait of an artist as a young man, a significant contribution to First World War literature and a brilliant evocation of a vanished world.
—— Malcolm Forbes , HeraldHertmans follows in his grandfather’s footsteps in this brilliant and moving imagined reconstruction, his imagination beautifully filling the gaps as he describes “the battle between the transcendent, which he yearned for, and the memory of death and destruction, which held him in its clutches.”
—— Eithne Farry , Daily ExpressA masterly treatise on the interconnections of life, art, memory, and heartbreaking love...Hertmans’s prose, with a deft translation from McKay, works with the same full palette as Urbain Martien’s paintings: vivid, passionate—and in the end, life-affirming.
—— Publishers WeeklyWar 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.
—— DovegreyreaderSuperb… The central section, which descrives life in the trenches in the First World War and the story of a lost love, is especially evocative
—— Simon Shaw , Mail on SundayAffecting and unusual… Hertman’s first-person construction evokes the brutality of the trenches but also their monotony... But the majority of War and Turpentine is not set in wartime, and deals with remembrance of a different sort. It is the soft edges of history, memory and creation that are its true subject… The heart of the book is a masterly portrait of a man’s grief over lost love and his commemoration of it in art.
—— Sunday Telegraph[A] vivid novel
—— The TimesHilarious and thoughtful.
—— Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin , IndependentDarkly funny yet moving debut.
—— ShortlistA “serious” novel that is genuinely and frequently funny.
—— Andrew Irwin , The Times Literary SupplementThis debut novel from Jesse Armstrong…is every bit as funny and cringe-inducing as the sitcoms he made his name writing.
—— Charlotte Ellis , Shortlistone of the year’s funniest books.
—— Yasmin Sulaiman , Listbrilliantly funny… the dialogue and the characters are fantastic.
—— Tom Basden , MetroZusak's novel is a highwire act of inventiveness and emotional suppleness
—— The AustralianA triumph of control ...one of the most unusual and compelling of recent Australian novels
—— The Age...the much talked about The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak...should soon have the UK under its spell.
—— Sam Burson , The Western Mail...this is a novel to touch even the coldest of hearts - definitely 2007's first must-read book.
—— Newmarket JournalA compelling tale from the start...definitely 2007's first must-read book.
—— Bury Free PressA moving story from the German perspective of everyday civilian hardship and surivival under the Third Reich. It celebrates the power of words and love, in the face of unutterable suffering
—— Mail on SundayDeath turns out to be a tender narrator in Zusak's 'The Book Thief' [...] This novel movingly depicts the Himmel Street community, and its orphaned book thief, Liesel Meminger
—— Books Quarterly (Waterstones)Your emotions by the end of this novel are shot to pieces, but it's well worth it.
—— GuardianAlthough already a bestselling children's book, THE BOOK THIEF's insightful and poignant tone and appealing characters...are amply equipped to capture adults, too.
—— Observer