The Colonial Hotel
A Novel
Published on 1. September 2018
232 pages
978-1-77090-519-1 (ISBN)
Description
This devastating tale of love and war is "in Graham Greene territory... A solid novel on morality in our not-quite-postcolonial world" (
The
Globe and Mail, Toronto).
A doctor and a nurse, Paris and Helen, are doing humanitarian work in a nation on the brink of civil war. They have also fallen in love with each other-and Helen is pregnant with their child.
Then, a confrontation breaks out and they are swept up by rebel forces and separated. One is imprisoned while the other escapes. In The Colonial Hotel-which recasts a classic story of ancient Greece into a modern setting-we learn of their fates, in a brutally powerful story of family, forgiveness, and identity.
"An exploration of love and grief, the power of storytelling, the pains of parenthood and uncomfortable truths... Bennett has cleverly and sensitively described the many types of love tested by war... Rewarding and intensely moving... Devastatingly beautiful." - National Post
A doctor and a nurse, Paris and Helen, are doing humanitarian work in a nation on the brink of civil war. They have also fallen in love with each other-and Helen is pregnant with their child.
Then, a confrontation breaks out and they are swept up by rebel forces and separated. One is imprisoned while the other escapes. In The Colonial Hotel-which recasts a classic story of ancient Greece into a modern setting-we learn of their fates, in a brutally powerful story of family, forgiveness, and identity.
"An exploration of love and grief, the power of storytelling, the pains of parenthood and uncomfortable truths... Bennett has cleverly and sensitively described the many types of love tested by war... Rewarding and intensely moving... Devastatingly beautiful." - National Post
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Person
Jonathan Bennett is the author of six books, including the critically acclaimed novels
Entitlement and
After Battersea Park, and is a winner of the K.M. Hunter Artists' Award in Literature. His collection of short stories,
Verandah People, was runner-up for the Danuta Gleed Award. Bennett's prose and poetry has appeared in many periodicals and journals including the
Globe and Mail,
The Walrus,
Quill & Quire,
This Magazine,
Southerly, and
Descant. Born in Vancouver and raised in Sydney, Australia, Bennett lives in the village of Keene, near Peterborough, Ontario.
Content
- Intro
- The Colonial Hotel
- Also by Jonathan Bennett
- PART ONE: PARIS & HELEN
- PART TWO: PARIS
- PART THREE: PARIS & OENONE
- Notes
- Acknowledgements
- Copyright
