Our May pick for Translations Book Club is Belgian author Stefan Hertmans’ enthralling work of historical imagination, War and Turpentine (trans: David McKay).
Shortly before his death in 1981, Stefan Hertmans’ grandfather gave him a couple of filled exercise books. Stories he’d heard as a child had led Hertmans to suspect that their contents might be disturbing, and for years he didn’t dare to open them.
When he finally did, he discovered unexpected secrets. His grandfather’s life was marked by years of childhood poverty in late-nineteenth-century Belgium, by horrific experiences on the frontlines during the First World War and by the loss of the young love of his life. He sublimated his grief in the silence of painting.
Drawing on these diary entries, his childhood memories and the stories told within Urbain’s paintings, Hertmans has produced a poetic novelisation of his grandfather’s story, brought to life with great imaginative power and vivid detail.
War and Turpentine is an enthralling search for a life that coincided with the tragedy of a century—and a posthumous, almost mythical attempt to give that life a voice at last.
Come and join the conversation! The event link below will be activated from 9am on Wednesday 1 May and spaces will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. New members are most welcome but spaces are limited. Feel free to send us an email if you have any questions.