
The Writing on the Wall
A Novel
W. D. Wetherell(Author)
Arcade Publishing
Published on 20. September 2012
Book
Hardback
232 pages
978-1-61145-744-5 (ISBN)
Description
When Vera decides to travel to an old house in the New England countryside for a month-long escape from some devastating news about her daughter, Cassie, she has no idea her life is about to change forever. It begins innocently enough-peeling the old wallpaper from the walls as a favor to the house's owner. What she discovers underneath-written in India ink on the very walls of the house by a woman named Beth, in 1919-is the beginning of the reader's unsettling crossing into the unknown world underneath the paper.
The Writing on the Wall is a brilliantly realized journey into the connected lives of three women whose stories span a century, linked by the house they all briefly inhabit, and by the tragedies they've had to endure. And it's not just their own stories that reveal themselves. A brilliant schoolteacher, back from the war in the trenches, finds the pupils of his dreams. A young Vietnam draftee makes a stubbornly quirky separate peace. The moody, dangerously charismatic leader of a commune becomes the unlikeliest of heroes. An "ordinary" housewife's lonely battle propels her onto the national stage. A girl sent to Iraq tries making sense of the chaos and the pain.
The Writing on the Wall is about stories that can't be told, but must be told-about secrets that can't be shared, but must be shared-and the surprising ways people find to confront the truth.
The Writing on the Wall is a brilliantly realized journey into the connected lives of three women whose stories span a century, linked by the house they all briefly inhabit, and by the tragedies they've had to endure. And it's not just their own stories that reveal themselves. A brilliant schoolteacher, back from the war in the trenches, finds the pupils of his dreams. A young Vietnam draftee makes a stubbornly quirky separate peace. The moody, dangerously charismatic leader of a commune becomes the unlikeliest of heroes. An "ordinary" housewife's lonely battle propels her onto the national stage. A girl sent to Iraq tries making sense of the chaos and the pain.
The Writing on the Wall is about stories that can't be told, but must be told-about secrets that can't be shared, but must be shared-and the surprising ways people find to confront the truth.
Reviews / Votes
W.D. Wetherell is a fearless acrobat with words and narrative structures. Hiswork, filled with humor, warmth and wisdom, asks us to re-examine our recenthistory.More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
Skyhorse Publishing
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
431 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-61145-744-5 (9781611457445)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
09/2017
Skyhorse Publishing
€15.81
Available for download

E-Book
10/2012
Arcade Publishing
€15.81
Available for download
Person
W.D. Wetherell is a novelist, story writer, and essayist who has published more than twenty books. His World War I novel, A Century of November, was published to wide acclaim, praised as " a small classic of language and emotion" (San Francisco Chronicle). Wetherell has published four previous books from Skyhorse/Arcade, including Summer of the Bass, On Admiration, Soccer Dad, and his latest novel, The Writing on the Wall. He resides in Lyme Center, New Hampshire.