Hertmans, Stefan, <br/><br/>
War and turpentine / 
Stefan Hertmans ; translated from the Dutch by David McKay. 
 - First American edition. 
 - London :  Harvill Secker,  2016. 
 - 296 pages :  illustrations ; 
<br/><br/> Previously published in Dutch as Oorlog en terpentijn (Amsterdam : De Bezige Bij, 2013); English translation originally published by Harvill Secker in 2016, in London, 
<br/><br/> "An international best seller: a vivid, masterly novel about a Flemish man who reconstructs his grandfather's story--his hopes, loves, and art, all disrupted by the First World War--from the unflinching notebooks he filled with pieces of his life.  The life of Urbain Martien--artist, soldier, survivor of World War I--lies contained in two notebooks he left behind when he died in 1981. His grandson, a writer, retells his story, the notebooks giving him the impetus to imagine his way into the locked chambers of Urbain's memory. He vividly recounts a whole life: Urbain as the child of a lowly church painter, retouching his father's work; dodging death in a foundry; fighting in the war that altered the course of history; marrying the sister of the woman he truly loved; haunted by an ever-present reminder of the artist he had hoped to be and the soldier he was forced to become. Wrestling with this story, Urbain's grandson straddles past and present, searching for a way to understand his own part in both. As artfully rendered as a Renaissance fresco, War and Turpentine paints an extraordinary portrait of one man's life and reveals how that life echoed down through the generations.  (With black-and-white illustrations throughout.)"--  "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"-- 
<br/><br/><label>ISBN: </label>9781846558825 
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Topical Terms: </label><br/>Grandfathers<br/>Grandsons<br/>Life change events<br/>World War, 1914-1918<br/>FICTION / Family Life.<br/>FICTION / Historical.<br/>FICTION / Literary.
<br/><br/><label>Dewey Class. No.: </label>839.31364 HER