This Strange Eventful History
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This Strange Eventful History
This Strange Eventful History
A family torn apart by war, geography, politics, religion, over the course of three generations
Over seven decades, from 1940 to 2010, the Cassar family is buffeted by conflict, struggling to find its feet - separated in the chaos of World War II, running from a complicated colonial homeland, and, after Algerian independence, without a homeland at all.
This Strange Eventful History is above all a family story: of patriarch Gaston and his wife Lucienne, whose myth of perfect love sustains them and stifles their children; of FranΓ§ois and Denise, devoted siblings connected by their family's strangeness; of FranΓ§ois's union with Barbara, a woman so culturally different they can barely comprehend one another; of ChloΓ©, the result of that union, who believes that telling these buried stories will bring them all peace.
Inspired in part by her own family's history, Claire Messud animates her characters' rich interior lives amid the social and political upheaval of the recent past. This Strange Eventful History is an immersive, masterful story of a family born on the wrong side of history.
'[A] wise and insightful novel about identity and family' The Times, Book of the Day 'A rich, sprawling saga... This Strange Eventful History may be Messud's finest book' Sunday TelegraphBook Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780349127071
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 22 May 2025
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Fleet
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 38.0mm
Width: 126.0mm
Height: 196.0mm
Weight: 360g
Pages: 448
About the Author
Claire Messud is a recipient of Guggenheim and Radcliffe Fellowships and the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her family
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