Painting Time
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
"One of contemporary fiction's most gifted sentence builders" Beejay Silcox, Guardian
Behind the ornate doors of 30, rue du Métal in Brussels, twenty students begin their apprenticeship in the art of decorative painting - that art of tricksters and counterfeiters, where each knot in a plank of wood hides a secret and every vein in a slab of marble tells a story.
Among these students are Kate, Jonas and Paula Karst. Together, during a relentless year of study, they will learn the techniques of reproducing materials in paint, and the intensity of their experience - the long hours in the studio, the late nights, the conversations, arguments, parties, romances - will cement a friendship that lasts long after their formal studies end.
For Paula, her initiation into the art of trompe l'œil will take her back through time, from her own childhood memories, to the ancient formations of the materials whose depiction she strives to master. And from the institute in Brussels where her studies begin, to her work on the film sets of Cinecittà, and finally the prehistoric caves of Lascaux, her experiences will transcend art, gradually revealing something of her own inner world, and the secret, unreachable desires of her heart.
A coming-of-age novel like no other: an atmospheric and highly aesthetic portrayal of love, art and craftsmanship from the acclaimed author of Birth of a Bridge and Mend the Living.
Translated from the French by Jessica Moore
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
De Kerangal (The Cook) tells an insightful story of a young woman's exploration of her relationship to art. Paula Karst is a student at the Institut de Peinture in Brussels, where she determines to master the exacting processes of wood graining, marbleizing, and tortoiseshell. Fully immersed in her work, Paula becomes detached from life but eventually bonds with two classmates, including her attractive roommate, Jonas. Later, she builds a career working as a scenic painter on film sets throughout Europe, and keeps in touch with Jonas on the internet. Rather than plot, the book is driven by an extended contemplation of the creative process and what it means to be human. As Paula works on a replica of the prehistoric Lascaux cave paintings, Jonas and Paula reunite. Jonas imagines a world without humans, while Paula feels a connection through her art with the Cro-Magnons who made the original cave paintings. What begins as Paula's personal story expands by the end to a brilliant philosophical study on the origins of human art, capped with a moving epiphanic moment. This perfectly captures a craftsperson's singular passion.
