A Century of November
A Novel
Published on 9. September 2004
Book
Hardback
176 pages
978-0-472-11431-3 (ISBN)
Description
A Century of November is the tale of Charles Marden, an apple grower and judge who sets off from his Vancouver Island home on an impulsive journey to Belgium, where his son, an Allied soldier in the First World War, has just died in battle at the very end of the war. Marden's single-minded mission: finding the exact spot where his son was killed.
Across western Canada the Spanish flu rages - the very disease that claimed Marden's wife three weeks earlier. Upon arriving in England, he learns that his son left behind a pregnant girlfriend. Soon his search widens to include locating the girl, too. Nearing the front lines, Marden seems to descend into the fires of hell as he navigates the mine-strewn killing fields of the trenches, still reeking with poison gas. Will he find the girl, and will he find an answer to the forces that drove him halfway around the world?
Author W. D. Wetherell has given us a novel of terrifying beauty, one that seems to occupy the place between waking and dreams. Its haunting words will linger long after the book is shut.
Across western Canada the Spanish flu rages - the very disease that claimed Marden's wife three weeks earlier. Upon arriving in England, he learns that his son left behind a pregnant girlfriend. Soon his search widens to include locating the girl, too. Nearing the front lines, Marden seems to descend into the fires of hell as he navigates the mine-strewn killing fields of the trenches, still reeking with poison gas. Will he find the girl, and will he find an answer to the forces that drove him halfway around the world?
Author W. D. Wetherell has given us a novel of terrifying beauty, one that seems to occupy the place between waking and dreams. Its haunting words will linger long after the book is shut.
Reviews / Votes
"Wetherell, a formidable artist in the tradition of the great war poets, gently increases the poundage of pressure on your heart-as well as the suspense-until you . . . are brought to the very extremities of love, hope, and despair, beyond the iron bounds of society. Gripping damning, and transfixing." * Entertainment Weekly * "Wetherell . . . traces the arc of a father's loss in this poignant, probing story about a Canadian judge who journeys from Vancouver to the European battlefield where his son died during the waning days of WWI. . . . Wetherell's prose and character writing are unflinching, and the final meeting between Marden and Reed is gut-wrenching. Though the novel travels a well-trodden route, Wetherell's take on a parent's anguish is deeply moving." * Publishers Weekly * "Wetherell excels in description, using words with precision and solemn beauty. . . . Poignant, tragic depictions of the people left to grieve and the ravaged land, the continuing death and dying-unexploded shells, phosgene gas, miles of twisted barbed wire, and always the mud-are wrenching. Yet in the midst of pain and loss, this is a story of hope and redemption in a desolate world. 'Luminous' is an overused word in reviews, but A Century of November more than deserves the word. This elegant novel will stay with you." * Shelf Awareness *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Ann Arbor
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 210 mm
Width: 133 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-472-11431-3 (9780472114313)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
W. D. Wetherell's previous books include the novels Morning and Chekhov's Sister, the short story collections The Man Who Loved Levittown and Wherever That Great Heart May Be. He recently held the Strauss Living grant from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.