War and Turpentine
{{short description|2013 novel by Stefan Hertmans}}
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| name = War and Turpentine
| image = File:Oorlog en Terpentijn.jpg
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| caption = First edition
| author = Stefan Hertmans
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| title_orig = Oorlog en Terpentijn
| orig_lang_code = nl
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| language = Dutch
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| publisher = De Bezige Bij
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| pub_date = 2013
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War and Turpentine (original title in Dutch: Oorlog en Terpentijn) is a 2013 novel by Belgian author Stefan Hertmans, originally published by De Bezige Bij. It is a novel about his grandfather, the artist Urbain Martien, during World War I. Hertmans says he based it on the notebooks his grandfather gave him in 1981. It was translated into English by David McKay and published by Pantheon Books in the US and by Harvill Secker in the UK. It has been translated in twenty languages so far. By 2015, the Dutch version had sold over 200,000 copies.{{cite news|last1=Duplat|first1=Guy|title=Stefan Hertmans, le chagrin d'un Flamand|url=http://www.lalibre.be/culture/livres-bd/stefan-hertmans-le-chagrin-d-un-flamand-5623c30235700fb92fd09de1|work=La Libre Belgique|date=18 October 2015|language=French}} It was longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2017.{{Cite web|url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/243214/war-and-turpentine-by-stefan-hertmans/|title=Awards|website=Penguin Random House -- War and Turpentine, a novel by Stefan Hertmans|access-date=27 June 2019}}
Synopsis
The work of historical fiction reconstructs the life of the narrator’s grandfather, Urbain Martien, before, during and after the First World War – as parts 1, 2 and 3 of the book. The narrator opens with a framing device, purporting to draw upon recollections in notebooks left him by the grandfather. (In an interview, Hertmans asserted that the novel indeed captures the memories of his own grandfather as recorded in a pair of notebooks decades after the war. “He gave me the notebooks a few months before he died, in 1981.”{{Cite web|url=http://www.stefanhertmans.be/sh/|title=Review of "War and Turpentine" from the New York Times|website=Stefan Hertmans|access-date=27 June 2019}} The novel’s narrator left the notebooks unread, until gaining the wherewithal to face the material, and then to re-work them into a work of fiction, some thirty years later—the hundredth anniversary of the war.
The main character, Urbain Martien, was raised in a suburban quarter of Ghent during the belle-époque, and was devoted to his Roman Catholic faith. His father, Franciscus Martien, worked as a fresco painter for parish churches in the Low Countries and finally, in England. Urbain, in turn, acquired an interest in drawing and painting from his father. Urbain's mother, Céline Andries, endured the premature death of her husband, remarried, and saw her son Urbain off to work in a foundry and then, in 1914, off to war.
At the outbreak of the Great War, the 23 year-old Urbain is sent to the front, where he becomes a disciplined soldier and decorated combat hero, and ever the dutiful . The agonies of trench warfare are described “from up close.” Injuries take Ubain to recover in Liverpool—coincidentally the site of one of his father's paintings.
In the third section, Urbain returns home, falls in love with Maria Emelia Ghys, a step-sister. Before he can marry, the story takes a tragic turn, when Maria succumbs in the Spanish flu epidemic. Urbain marries Maria's sister Gabrielle, producing a daughter (the narrator's mother) in 1922, but the union lacks the affection Urbain had known with Maria Emielia. Urbain continues as a devoted artist (and especially as a copyist) into early retirement and until his death. The grandson, the narrator, visits sites in West Flanders and reviews personal archival materials, in an attempt to understand, even reconstruct, something of his grandfather's life experiences.
Reception
It was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2016 by The New York Times Book Review.{{cite news|title=The 10 Best Books of 2016|url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/books/review/best-books.html|publisher=The New York Times Book Review|date=1 December 2016}} It was also included in the list of Books of the Year from The Economist{{cite news|title=Books of the Year 2016|url=https://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21711295-best-books-2016-are-about-china-language-microbes-hereditary-power-inequality|work=The Economist|date=10 December 2016}} The review in the Guardian called it a "future classic" and compared it to the works of W. G. Sebald, as did the NYT Book Review.{{cite news|last1=Mukherjee|first1=Neil|title=War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans review – a future classic|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jul/02/war-and-turpentine-by-stefan-hertmans-review|work=Guardian|date=2 July 2016}}
The Irish Times gave it a less favourable review, calling it "an important work" but negatively comparing the "somewhat flat and toneless" prose to that of W. G. Sebald and calling it "less convincing artistically".{{cite news|last1=Battersby|first1=Eileen|title=War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans review: real, raw and powerful|url=http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/war-and-turpentine-by-stefan-hertmans-review-real-raw-and-powerful-1.2712362|work=Irish Times|date=7 July 2016}}
Awards
Translations
- Min bedstefars himmel, Danish, 2014, translated by Birthe Lundsgaard, People's Press
- Krig og terpentin, Norwegian, 2014, translated by Hedda Vormeland, Pax
- Rat i terpentin, Serbian, 2014, translated by Ivana Šćepanović, Heliks
- Guerre et térébenthine, French, 2015, translated by Isabelle Rosselin, Gallimard
- Guerra e trementina, Italian, 2015, translated by Laura Pignatti, Marsilio
- Der Himmel meines Großvaters, German, 2015, translated by Ira Wilhelm, Hanser Verlag
- Wojny i terpentyna, Polish, 2015, translated by Alicja Oczko, Marginesy
- Japanese translation, 2015
- Vojna in terpentin, Slovenian, 2015, translated by Staša Pavlović, Studentska zalozba
- Krig of terpentin, Swedish, 2015, translated by Ingrid Wikén Bonde, Norstedts
- War and Turpentine, English, 2016, translated by David McKay
- Oorlog en terpentyn, Afrikaans, 2016, translated by Daniel Hugo, Protea Boekhuis
- Háború és terpentin, Hungarian, 2016, translated by Miklós Fenyves, Európa
- Croatian version, 2016, translated by Romana Perečinec, Fraktura