Dimensions
163 x 240 x 43mm
Washington, DC, the early 1930s. On the outskirts of the capital, a group of First World War veterans set up a protest camp, demanding payment in return for their service papers. Alden, a young, privileged, political radical begins to visit, occasionally bringing along his little sister Sutton. They befriend Arthur, a farm worker from Kansas, and his fourteen-year-old son, Douglas. A riot breaks out at the camp, and Alden is caught with explosive devices. He is arrested but, after some help from his father, quickly released. A scapegoat is required. The police select a man more or less at random out of a group detained during the riots, and Isabelle is asked to identify the 'guilty' man. The guilty man is Arthur. From this vital meeting the four characters u Alden, Isabelle, Arthur, Douglas u disperse into a world on the cusp of war: to North Africa, to Paris and to Germany, where the secret of Alden and Sutton's betrayal resurfaces to terrible, and tragic, results. Taking inspiration and its title from Olivier Messiaen's wartime masterpiece Quartet for the End of Time, Johanna Skibsrud's ambitious new novel is a mesmerising tale of love, responsibility and justice, presenting quiet answers to the ultimate questions of fear and faith.
