Zusatztext Tender! honest and dramatic. . . . Bock paints a broad! yet vivid account of a man's life on the battlefield! and illuminates the personal and political ideals amid the confusion of war." The Providence Journal "Bock's spare narrative draws a well-rounded character study of a dedicated! flawed individual ultimately ravaged by the tedium and monstrosity of war surrounding him." Entertainment Weekly "Reminiscent of Marilynne Robinson's Gilead in gravitas and lyricism! Bock's novel about a man who means to do good in the world! steadfastly faces death! and reveres the planet's beauty is a study in sorrow! courage! and mystery." Booklist "Bock's descriptions of war's detritus--the wounded! the dying! the starving! the haunted--recall Goya's darkest visions. . . . Deeply affecting." The Boston Globe Informationen zum Autor Dennis Bock was awarded the Canada-Japan Literary Award in 2002 for The Ash Garden . He lives in Ontario with his wife and their two sons. Klappentext The Communist's Daughter is a sweeping novel of love and betrayal spanning the trenches of the Great War to the horrors of Spain and China. Norman Bethune was a visionary whose dedication touched millions. Rebelling in childhood against his father's religion! he finds a calling himself! saving lives on the battlefield. In Republican Spain he fulfills his idealism! yet before long politics destroy his romance and drive him to seek refuge in China. Here! in service to a man eventually known as Mao Zedong! Bethune begins this account of his life and his cherished beliefs for the only person who still makes a future seem possible: the daughter he has never seen. Leseprobe It is my hope that your understanding will win out against any mistrust or anger you may harbour against me when you finally read this. It is so easy to feel anger, and Lord knows I deserve a good dose of it. But I am trying, and you will see I have been trying for quite some time. I also hope that you will read this many years from now, when you are grown, at a time when this story will be long past. With an adult's eyes it is more likely that you will see this letter for what it is, and know the regret and tenderness I feel as I compose this history for you. Of course, I know I have no control over any of this, yet still I hope. The dead must relinquish so much.Heaven forbid these pages return to you without me, but allowing for such a possibility I give you my word absolutely that I will recount my life as faithfully as I recall it, nothing added, nothing lost.Will I be dead? That is certainly the way things seem to go around here, but it is not my intention to go off and die any time soon. You may also take some consolation in knowing that we Bethunes are fighters, first and foremost, and never go down without a mighty struggle. For a man nearing fifty I have got a good bit of life left in me.The reality is that you have missed every word of the story I will tell, and I cannot change that fact. When such a small miracle as you awaited, I chose to look elsewhere for purpose. I chose to leave you behind, and that is the sadness in my life. I feel there is no adequate apology a father can offer his child for something like that, but it is my hope to tell you a little about the world as it was before you came into it, and about the terrible forces that pulled me away from you once you finally did. And to tell you why I came to this faraway country. One's journey through life is fraught with contradictions and compromises. I see that now, and perhaps one day you will see it too.There is a boy here in north China with me named Ho. You would like him. The plain truth is that nothing would get done around here without him. He is my vigilant sentry, my water boy, my trusted valet, my cook, my barber. He is the one who provides me with everything I need. When he saw the state of this t...

8220;Tender, honest and dramatic. . . . Bock paints a broad, yet vivid account of a man's life on the battlefield, and illuminates the personal and political ideals amid the confusion of war." —The Providence Journal"Bock's spare narrative draws a well-rounded character study of a dedicated, flawed individual ultimately ravaged by the tedium and monstrosity of war surrounding him." —Entertainment Weekly"Reminiscent of Marilynne Robinson's Gilead in gravitas and lyricism, Bock's novel about a man who means to do good in the world, steadfastly faces death, and reveres the planet's beauty is a study in sorrow, courage, and mystery." —Booklist"Bock's descriptions of war's detritus--the wounded, the dying, the starving, the haunted--recall Goya's darkest visions. . . . Deeply affecting." —The Boston Globe

Auteur
Dennis Bock was awarded the Canada-Japan Literary Award in 2002 for The Ash Garden. He lives in Ontario with his wife and their two sons.

Texte du rabat

The Communist's Daughter is a sweeping novel of love and betrayal spanning the trenches of the Great War to the horrors of Spain and China. Norman Bethune was a visionary whose dedication touched millions. Rebelling in childhood against his father's religion, he finds a calling himself, saving lives on the battlefield. In Republican Spain he fulfills his idealism, yet before long politics destroy his romance and drive him to seek refuge in China. Here, in service to a man eventually known as Mao Zedong, Bethune begins this account of his life and his cherished beliefs for the only person who still makes a future seem possible: the daughter he has never seen.

Échantillon de lecture
It is my hope that your understanding will win out against any mistrust or anger you may harbour against me when you finally read this. It is so easy to feel anger, and Lord knows I deserve a good dose of it. But I am trying, and you will see I have been trying for quite some time. I also hope that you will read this many years from now, when you are grown, at a time when this story will be long past. With an adult’s eyes it is more likely that you will see this letter for what it is, and know the regret and tenderness I feel as I compose this history for you. Of course, I know I have no control over any of this, yet still I hope. The dead must relinquish so much.Heaven forbid these pages return to you without me, but allowing for such a possibility I give you my word absolutely that I will recount my life as faithfully as I recall it, nothing added, nothing lost.Will I be dead? That is certainly the way things seem to go around here, but it is not my intention to go off and die any time soon. You may also take some consolation in knowing that we Bethunes are fighters, first and foremost, and never go down without a mighty struggle. For a man nearing fifty I have got a good bit of life left in me.The reality is that you have missed every word of the story I will tell, and I cannot change that fact. When such a small miracle as you awaited, I chose to look elsewhere for purpose. I chose to leave you behind, and that is the sadness in my life. I feel there is no adequate apology a father can offer his child for something like that, but it is my hope to tell you a little about the world as it was before you came into it, and about the terrible forces that pulled me away from you once you finally did. And to tell you why I came to this faraway country. One’s journey through life is fraught with contradictions and compromises. I see that now, and perhaps one day you will see it too.There is a boy here in north China with me named Ho. You would like him. The plain truth is that nothing would get done around here without him. He is my vigilant sentry, my water boy, my trusted valet, my cook, my barber. He is the one who provides me with everything I need. When he saw the state of this typewriter ribbon (I had been using the old Remington portable to write up a number of medical reports) he dipped it in some oil he f…