First published 2017
Urbain Martien grows up poor in turn-of-the-century Belgium, son of a church painter who dies young. At thirteen, he starts work at an iron foundry. He treasures the afternoons he once spent watching his father paint church frescoes. The foundry feels like hell by comparison. When the First World War breaks out, Urbain fights on the front lines against German forces. The combat leaves him with memories that will never fade. After the war ends, he marries Maria Emelia, the woman he loves deeply. She dies in the 1919 flu pandemic. Urbain grieves her loss for decades. Her parents pressure him to marry Maria Emelia's sister, and the dutiful man complies. This second marriage carries the weight of his first love's ghost. Urbain finds comfort in art and painting as he navigates the sadness that shapes his later years. The story emerges from real notebooks that Urbain gave his grandson Stefan Hertmans before dying.
Genres: art, historical-fiction, 20th-century, biography-memoir
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Belgium
Period: Turn of the 20th Century, World War I
304 pages · Paperback · RANDOM HOUSE UK
Content warnings: death