The Tears

Name: The Tears
Brand: Unknown
SKU: 9781803090641
Price: 46.99 NZD
Availability: InStock

By Pascal Quignard and Chris Turner

Summary

The Tears follows the intertwined lives of twins Nithard and Hartnid, sons of Charlemagne’s daughter Bertha, set against the backdrop of medieval Europe. Nithard, a scholar and lay abbot, joins his cousin Emperor Charles the Bald on military campaigns, while Hartnid embarks on a daring journey as far as Baghdad in pursuit of a mysterious female vision haunting his dreams. The narrative weaves historical detail with poetic imagination, exploring themes of nature’s joys, the deep connections among living beings, and the pivotal events that shaped cultures and languages, including the origins of French.
Read More

Format: Hardback

$46⁹⁹

AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 3-4 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

The Tears

$46⁹⁹

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

Ideal for readers who appreciate historical fiction richly layered with speculative history, poetic prose, and philosophical themes, especially those interested in medieval Europe and French cultural origins.

The Tears

"First published in French as Les Larmes"--T.p. verso.

Description

A novel of intersecting historical threads.

The Tears is, at one level, a novel about the turbulent lives of twins, the sons of Charlemagne’s daughter Bertha. The studious and scholarly Nithard succeeds his father Angilbert as lay abbot of the Abbey of Saint Riquier in Normandy and accompanies his cousin, the emperor Charles the Bald, on his military campaigns. His twin brother Hartnid strikes out boldly for more exotic parts—including, eventually, Baghdad—in a seemingly deranged quest to track down the elusive female face that haunts his dreams.

Yet this novel of intersecting historical threads and patches of poetic reimagining is crisscrossed by a host of other themes: the enigmatic joys afforded by nature, the intimate relation between living creatures which literature has since earliest times depicted, and the mysterious power of contingent events that have shaped entire cultures—including the birth of the French language itself. This heady brew of medieval chronicle, miraculous folktale, and speculative reconstruction of history further strengthens Pascal Quignard’s status as one of France’s most imaginative contemporary writers.