*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.
- ISBN10 0349127050
- ISBN13 9780349127057
- Publish Date 23 May 2024 (first published 7 May 2024)
- Publish Status Forthcoming
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
- Imprint Fleet
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 448
- Language English