The Photographer's Boy
A Novel
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- €7.99
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- €7.99
Publisher Description
A set of antique photographic plates is the key to uncovering hidden truths of the Civil War, Great Depression, and 9/11 eras in this “unflinching” novel (Publishers Weekly).
A teenage boy and his grandfather travel across America to attend that last great reunion of Civil War veterans at Gettysburg in 1938, where secrets and lies are revealed about the old man’s past. Perhaps he was not the hero his grandson thought, but he still has a valuable treasure to reveal, which will shed intriguing light on the war and his part in it.
Interweaving three periods of crisis in American history—the Civil War, the Depression, and 9/11—The Photographer’s Boy explores the power of photography and journalism to inform or mislead; raises questions about love; and offers “an unflinching but sympathetic, often touching, look at the comforting fictions people wrap themselves in to protect themselves from the cold of reality” (Publishers Weekly).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Chance saves Gene from a seat on United Flight 93; post-9/11 trauma sends timorous Gene Hofsettler and wife Isabelle to the backwater refuge of small town New England. There, they find a hidden trove of old photographic plates, relics dating back to the American Civil War. Their effort to learn more about the plates and their creation provides the frame for two linked stories, the tale of a young photographer Alfred Barker in the Civil War and the story of Barker's grandson Jim's ill-fated romance with would-be actress Annabelle-Lee Morrow. The three stories modern, Depression era and Civil War cast an illuminating light on the fables people tell themselves and on the realities many prefer to forget. The Civil War photographs, seemingly clear in content and meaning, take on new significance in fuller context; what appears to be simple documentation proves more akin to pandering sensationalism. Similarly, the simple stories people tell themselves about romance and family prove unreliable guides to the complexities of life. Veteran British Journalist and non-fiction author Bates' debut novel is an unflinching but sympathetic, often touching, look at the comforting fictions people wrap themselves in to protect themselves from the cold of reality.
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