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A guardian angel recalls / Willem Frederik Hermans ; translated from the Dutch by David Colmer.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextLanguage: English Original language: Dutch Publisher: Brooklyn, NY : Archipelago Books, 2021Copyright date: ©2021Edition: First Archipelago Books editionDescription: 511 pages ; 17 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781953861023
  • 1953861024
Uniform titles:
  • Herinneringen van een engelbewaarder. English
Subject(s): Genre/Form: Summary: ""One of the most beautiful novels that I've written." - Willem Frederik Hermans Alberegt, a public prosecutor and self-proclaimed "man of minor failings," speeds through Hook of Holland in his black Renault on May 9, 1940. His every move is guided by the cool and patient hand of a guardian angel. Flitting about from the hood of Alberegt's car to the rim of his windswept hat, the angel attempts to quell their unhappy ward's fears and secrets. (On occasion the heavenly narrator is so ashamed of Alberegt that they cover their own face with guardian wings.) The angel, musing for just a moment on the greater suffering of mankind, forgets a frenzied and lovelorn Alberegt at the wheel and Alberegt swerves into a small child crossing the road. This fatal event, on the eve of Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, spins the novel into a nightmare in which even expressions of empathy and humanity are edged out by cynicism and cruelty. Reminiscent of Georges Simenon, Albert Camus, and Kurt Vonnegut, A Guardian Angel Recalls is a brilliant and unnerving masterpiece."-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library Fiction HERMANS, WILLEM Available 33111010759864
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Willem Frederik Hermans's lucid and exhilarating WWII masterpiece in a razor-sharp translation by David Colmer

A Guardian Angel Recalls is a gripping and diabolical wartime novel by one of the most provocative Dutch writers of the twentieth-century.

Alberegt, a frenzied and lovelorn public prosecutor, speeds through Hook of Holland in his black Renault on May 9, 1940 - the eve of the German invasion of the Netherlands. Guiding his every move is a guardian angel.

With unflappable patience, the angel flits from the hood of the Renault to the rim of his windswept hat, determined to quell his every anxiety and doubt. The angel's momentary distraction, however, sets off a chain of events that spins a nightmarish web.

Alberegt's elusive companion serves both as narrator and meddlesome driver of the plot, though not without the interventions of a rotating cast of devils.

""One of the most beautiful novels that I've written." - Willem Frederik Hermans Alberegt, a public prosecutor and self-proclaimed "man of minor failings," speeds through Hook of Holland in his black Renault on May 9, 1940. His every move is guided by the cool and patient hand of a guardian angel. Flitting about from the hood of Alberegt's car to the rim of his windswept hat, the angel attempts to quell their unhappy ward's fears and secrets. (On occasion the heavenly narrator is so ashamed of Alberegt that they cover their own face with guardian wings.) The angel, musing for just a moment on the greater suffering of mankind, forgets a frenzied and lovelorn Alberegt at the wheel and Alberegt swerves into a small child crossing the road. This fatal event, on the eve of Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, spins the novel into a nightmare in which even expressions of empathy and humanity are edged out by cynicism and cruelty. Reminiscent of Georges Simenon, Albert Camus, and Kurt Vonnegut, A Guardian Angel Recalls is a brilliant and unnerving masterpiece."-- Provided by publisher.

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