The Sentimentalists - Tapa dura

"Johanna Skibsrud's remarkable debut is a novel at once lyrical and frank, the resonantly layered portrait of a man, a family and a place that will stay with you long after you read the last page." (Claire Messud)

"A beautiful tribute to a father-daughter relationship." (Globe and Mail)

"The writing here is trip-wire taut as the exploration of guilt, family and duty unfold." (Giller Prize Jury)

"A probing exploration - now subtle, oblique, now forensic, scalpel-sharp - of the ramifications of a person's experience through the lives and relationships of those he loves. Of the way in which what we do, and witness, echoes through our lives, and the next generation's." (Tim Pears)

"An outstanding novel born of the horror of Vietnam...The poet Johanna Skibsrud's subtle yet candid first novel, which last year deservedly won the Giller Prize, Canada's major literary award, confronts the aftermath of a Vietnam veteran's experience and its impact on his wife and two daughters...Skibsrud is a calm writer, and her prose is detailed...the emotional power is relentless. A sense of longing courses through the narrative, yet the irony of the title is well served; this is an intelligent, reserved novel, and is all the more moving for the restrained dignity that conveys not only the regrets but also the anger...Skibsrud is superb at evoking memory, the way random flashbacks dart into the mind and entire scenes are recalled with the vividness of a photograph...The scenes in which she observes her father and his dead friend's father are brilliantly handled. There are flashes of perfection in this muted novel. There is also an ironic humour...A philosophical intensity often surfaces; this is a thoughtful novel, reflecting on many dark issues. Yet all the while Skibsrud is guiding the personal story towards a darker one: that of war...The US army did not leave Vietnam as heroes. This collective horror has inspired some outstanding novels; this is one of them...The Sentimentalists is an allusive, intelligent and solemn work that articulates one man's horror and the way it became a communal lamentation." (Eileen Battersby Irish Times)

Haunted by the horrific events he witnessed during the Vietnam War, Napoleon Haskell is exhausted from years spent battling his memories. As his health ultimately declines, his two daughters move him from his trailer in North Dakota to Casablanca, Ontario, to live with the father of Napoleon's friend who was killed in action. It is to Casablanca, on the shores of a man-made lake beneath which lie the remains of the former town, that Napoleon's youngest daughter also retreats when her own life comes unhinged. Living with the two old men, she finds her father in the twilight of his life and rapidly slipping into senility. With love and insatiable curiosity, she devotes herself to learning the truth about him; and through the fog, Napoleon's past begins to emerge.

Beautiful, taut and riveting, The Sentimentalists is a story of what lies beneath the surface of the everyday, and of the commanding power of the past. Drawing on her own experience as a war veteran's daughter, Skibsrud's novel captures the rich complexities encountered by a woman seeking to comprehend and frankly express the truth - in all its fragility - about her life and her family.