From Publishers Weekly
A majestic English estate sees new use as a makeshift hospital for WWI's wounded in Shields's beautifully haunting second novel. After losing her husband, Charles, in WWI, Catherine honors his wish to turn their home over to the army's medical unit, and it is soon filled with men wounded in combat, such as Julian, who, though half his face has been destroyed by shrapnel, reminds her of Charles. Dr. McCleary, who left retirement to work at the hospital, bonds with Julian while trying to keep Artis, an aspiring doctor and former groundskeeper, from being drafted. Also on staff is artist Anna Coleman, who sketches the wounded for medical records and lends her artistic talents to an undertaking proposed by Dr. McCleary: he wants to create a mask for a patient with an irreparably damaged face; Anna is to paint the soldier's pre-injury face on the mask. When that soldier turns out to be Julian, Catherine secretly embarks on a plan to resurrect her husband through her new lover. Shields's writing weaves dark mythical symbolism with matter-of-fact medical nitty-gritty to reveal what happens when class, ignorance, hopefulness and despair coalesce.
(Dec.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
--Ce texte provient de la
Hardcover
édition.
From AudioFile
It's 1915. A young British war widow agrees to have her estate become a military hospital for patients whose faces have been damaged almost beyond repair. When she falls in love with a patient, she is tempted to have his face remade to look like that of her dead husband. Josephine Bailey's smoky voice matches the mood of the story, and her pace is as considered as the writing. A bit too considered for this reviewer, who worried that the story would sink into significant pauses. It can also be difficult to track conversations among the doctors and patients, as Bailey does not clearly differentiate male voices. A worthy effort, but not quite as spellbinding as advertised. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine--
Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
--Ce texte provient de la
Audio CD
édition.
