The Light of Amsterdam
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
'Subtle, understated, not without a hint of menace and always courageous ... An important book' Irish Times
'Marvellously compelling ... Park takes that most difficult of subjects - recent history - and with graceful integrity explores the difficulties involved in coming to terms with the legacies of the past ... beautifully described in Park's crystalline prose' Daily Mail
It is December in Belfast, Christmas is approaching and three sets of people are about to make their way to Amsterdam.
Alan, a university art teacher, goes on a pilgrimage to the city of his youth with troubled teenage son Jack; middle-aged couple Marion and Richard take a break from running their garden centre to celebrate Marion's birthday; and Karen, a single mother struggling to make ends meet, joins her daughter's hen party.
As these people brush against each other in the squares, museums and parks of Amsterdam, their lives are transfigured as they encounter the complexities of love in a city that challenges what has gone before.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The streets, canals, and parks of Amsterdam play host to personal reckonings in Park's remarkable new novel (after The Truth Commissioner). Alan, a recently divorced father, drags his teenage son, Jack, to the Dutch capital for a vacation in a bid to jump-start his post-marriage life; Marion accompanies her husband, Richard (whom she suspects has been unfaithful), to the city for a birthday getaway; and single mom Karen tags along for her daughter Shannon's bachelorette party. Park eases into each character's story, bringing their struggles, hopes, and loves into delicate relief as they wander through their thoughts and down the cobbled lanes of the wintry city. At once an amalgam of sensitive character studies, Park's newest is also a gorgeous portrait of the Venice of the North as Marion, Richard, Jack, et al. navigate their various desires and disappointments, each alights on some bit of beauty.
