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Howard Norman, widely regarded as one of this country's finest novelists, returns to the mesmerizing fictional terrain of his major books—The Bird Artist, The Museum Guard, and The Haunting of L—in this erotically charged and morally complex story.
Seventeen-year-old Wyatt Hillyer is suddenly orphaned when his parents, within hours of each other, jump off two different bridges—the result of their separate involvements with the same compelling neighbor, a Halifax switchboard operator and aspiring actress. The suicides cause Wyatt to move to small-town Middle Economy to live with his uncle, aunt, and ravishing cousin Tilda.
Setting in motion the novel's chain of life-altering passions, and the wartime perfidy at its core, is the arrival of German student Hans Mohring, carrying only a satchel. Actual historical incidents—including a German U-boat's sinking of the Nova Scotia–Newfoundland ferry Caribou...
What Is Left the Daughter is about the dubious choices otherwise sensible people make in the crucible of a terrible war. Some of the choices are minor…but others could not be more important. There is a lot of death in this book. I count seven important deaths…and half a dozen minor ones besides, a high body count for any novel. Yet the book is never overwhelmingly dark or morbid, which is a feat. Wyatt's voice and Norman's crisp, readable style keep the story fresh.
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub |
Potvin Patrick
reviewed What Is Left the Daughter on November 23, 2014 What Is Left the Daughter
Disclaimer: I love all of Howard Norman's work. "The Bird Artist" is one of my favorite books, and I've loved his others too.
Like all of his books, "What Is Left the Daughter" is beautifully written. It's a book full of incredibly rich dualities and symbolism, yet I'm sure it could be just as effective read by someone who chooses not to analyse it.
Written as a letter from an older Wyatt Hillyer to his 21-year-old daughter, the book opens with the suicides of both of Wyatt's parents, who jump from different bridges at about the same time. He is taken in by an aunt and uncle who live nearby in tiny Middle Economy. His uncle is a sled- and toboggan-maker, and he teaches Wyatt the craft. They have an adopted daughter, Tilda, a book-loving woman trying to become a professional mourner, with whom Wyatt falls in unrequited love. She is in love with a young German emigre studying philology (words) at a nearby university. German U-boats are sinking Canadian craft, bringing the huge war to the tiny town.
"I believe if you sully the sea it will come back at you ten fold," Wyatt's uncle says early on. And the water, the library, the bakery are the canvas in which Norman paints his characters with a precision that amounts to a kind of literary pointillism. The novel takes on the mysteries of love and death and war with lovely subtlety.
It's a book that may stay with you forever. I hope I've done it, and Mr. Norman, justice, because they matter to me.
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