While the gods were sleeping
By: Erwin Mortier ; translated from the Dutch by Paul Vincent
Contributors: Vincent, Paul (Paul F.), translator
Publisher: Pushkin
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 364
ISBN-13: 9781782270171
Subjects: Social aspects; World War, 1914-1918; World War (1914-1918) fast (OCoLC)fst01180746; Fiction
Description: While the Gods Were Sleeping is a novel about the magnitude and impact of the First World War, the recollections of which are recorded in the notebooks of the elderly Helena. The young Helena is sent to her uncle's country house before the war, and from here she witnesses scenes of indescribable horror. But it is also where she meets Matthew again, a British Army photographer who she goes on to marry. This is a story not about spectacular events; rather, Mortier is concerned with writing about war, history and the past with great empathy and engagement, and with a mixture of melancholy, qualification and resignation.
Notes: Translated from the Dutch.