This Strange Eventful History
A TIME MAGAZINE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2024
AN OPRAH DAILY MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2024
AN OBSERVER 2024 PICK
A GUARDIAN 2024 PICK
‘One of those rare novels which a reader doesn’t merely read but lives through with the characters . . . Claire Messud is a magnificent storyteller’ Yiyun Li
June 1940. As Paris falls to the Germans, Gaston Cassar – honorable servant of France, devoted husband and father, currently posted as naval attache in Salonica – bids farewell to his beloved wife, aunt and children, placing his faith in God that they will be reunited after the war. But escaping the violence of that cataclysm is not the same as emerging unscathed. The family will never again be whole.
A work of breathtaking historical sweep and vivid psychological intimacy, This Strange Eventful History charts the Cassars’ unfolding story as its members move between Salonica and Algeria, the US, Cuba, Canada, Argentina, Australia and France – their itinerary shaped as much by a search for an elusive wholeness, as by the imperatives of politics, faith, family, industry and desire.
Latest reviews
Dry, longwinded and at times tedious, this is a French-Algerian family saga from 1940 to today based on the author's own family and covering many true historical events. "Was the French presence in Algeria wrong?" asks one of the family. A discussion on different kinds of colonialism follows and is a large part of the book, although the focus is mainly on the personal rather than the political. But OMG!!!! That was a big, outrageous, shocking reveal at the end!!!! Did not see that coming.
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