War and Turpentine By David McKay (Translator)

WINNER OF THE VONDEL PRIZE 2017 LONGLISTED FOR THE 2017 MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE Selected as a Book of the Year 2016 in The Times Sunday Times and The Economist and one of the 10 Best Books of 2016 in the New York Times Shortly before his death Stefan Hertmans’ grandfather Urbain Martien gave his grandson a set of notebooks containing the detailed memories of his life. He grew up in poverty around 1900 the son of a struggling church painter who died young and went to work in an iron foundry at only 13. Afternoons spent with his father at work on a church fresco were Urbain’s heaven