The Light of Amsterdam
A Novel
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2.0 • 1 Rating
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
It is December; Christmas is approaching and the magic of one of Europe's most beautiful cities beckons. A father looks for himself in the past, struggling to deal with a recent divorce, his teenage son in tow. A single, selfless mother accompanies her only daughter and friends for a weekend-long bachelorette party. And a husband treats his wife to a birthday weekend away, somehow heightening her anxieties and insecurities about age, desire, and motherhood. As these people brush against one another in the squares, museums, and parks of Amsterdam, their lives are transfigured in the winter light, and they encounter the complexities of love in a city that challenges what has gone before. Tender and humane, elevating the ordinary to something timeless and important, The Light of Amsterdam is a novel of compassion and rare dignity.
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.
