An understated yet profound and incredibly hard hitting and evocative novel that just simmers with tension. 70 year old Vietnam veteran Robert Quinlan and his younger brother Jimmy have been estranged since Jimmy left their parents house 47 years before. A homeless man fleetingly touches the story and feelings that have been lurking, lying deeply buried, slyly resurface and begin to run amok. Robert Olen Butler writes with beautiful subtlety, the story stays planted firmly in the here and now, yet thoughts travel back in time, connecting threads, opening up and provoking feelings. There is an exquisite understanding of human wants and needs at play here, this is an incredibly personal novel, yet it opens up a world of heartache. A quietly challenging read, the history, the war are so essential to the storyline, yet it’s the impact of now, of the moment, that is so significant. ‘Pefume River’ is simple yet provocative, and is a beautifully touching, truly worthwhile read. ~ Liz Robinson
Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence 2017'A powerful novel' - Mail on SundayProfound and poignant, Perfume River is an examination of relationships, personal choice, and how war resonates down the generations. It is the finest novel yet from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Good Scent from a Strange MountainRobert Quinlan and his wife Darla teach at Florida State University. Their marriage, forged in the fervor of anti-Vietnam-war protests, now bears the fractures of time, with the couple trapped in an existence of morning coffee and solitary jogging and separate offices. For Robert and Darla, the cracks remain below the surface, whereas the divisions in Robert's own family are more apparent: he has almost no relationship with his brother Jimmy, who became estranged from the family as the Vietnam War intensified. William Quinlan, Robert and Jimmy's father, a veteran of World War II, is coming to the end of his life, and aftershocks of war ripple across all their lives once again when Jimmy refuses to appear at his father's bedside. And a disturbed homeless man whom Robert at first takes to be a fellow Vietnam veteran turns out to have a devastating impact not just on Robert, but on his entire family. 'What I so like about Perfume River is its plainly-put elegance. Enough time has passed since Viet Nam that its grave human lessons and heartbreaks can be, with a measure of genius, almost simply stated. Butler's novel is a model for this heartbreaking simplicity and grace' - Richard Ford'Movingly portrays a family still torn apart by a war that ended 40 years earlier' - Sunday Times'This is a novel about the long shadows cast by war and trauma' - Daily Mail'Perfume River is a highly accomplished novel. Butler's prose is polished and supple, his elegant voice capable of shifting from academia to the 'whoosh and blare' of combat, then to the lush immediacy of Vietnam' - Spectator'Butler has not entered the significant and ever-growing canon of Vietnam-related fiction (he has long been a member); he has changed its composition forever' - Guardian
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