Tristan Martens, a retired entomologist, is shaken by the discovery of his mother's sewing table in a New York antique shop. He hasn't seen it since he was a boy in Holland, but he vividly remembers the last time he did. Only Tristan knows the painful truth behind the scrawled - and misunderstood - inscription on the bottom of the table, and he embarks on a scheme to acquire it from the shop's owner, Cora Lowenstein, who insists it's not for sale. But as their lives become entangled, Tristan must make a choice. Can he tell Cora the truth? Begun in deceit, their relationship and Tristan's salvation hinge on his willingness to confront and finally confess the terrible secrets of his family's past. In startlingly beautiful prose resonant with dramatic tension, Mylene Dressler tells the heartrending story of an old man taking his last chance and struggling toward an elusive redemption and the even more distant hope of love.
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"This is an interesting look at the the lifelong guilt that haunts a man who grew up in a family that supported the Third Reich. " — Jan (4 out of 5 stars)
"This is an interesting look at the the lifelong guilt that haunts a man who grew up in a family that supported the Third Reich. "
" I felt that this book was very well written, but the ending left me wanting. I felt that the book was completely unresolved and I wanted to know more about what happened (as have several people I have talked to about the book). "
" Really awesome twist on an anti-Semitic viewpoint, heartbreaking, and not what I expected (in a good way!) "
" a very slow read. was originally intrigued by the 'mystery' of the narrator's past. was ultimately dissatisfied w/ the answer - not very thoroughly discussed & almost an afterthought. not clear. didn't seem to really end a story as much as the bk just stopped. "
" This was promising-to start-engaging story-developed characters, then the ball just got dropped. Like there was not enough time to write a proper ending. Oh well, you might like it more than I did. "
" strong, quiet historical novel. I'll look for more by this writer... "
" historical novel with quiet intrigue, and some heft... "
Mylène Dressler is the critically-acclaimed author of The Medusa Tree, The Deadwood Beetle, and The Floodmakers. She has been a faculty member or a visiting writer at the University of Texas at Austin, the National Autonomous University of Chiapas, the University of Groningen, Rice University, and the University of St. Thomas, among others. Her honors and awards include the Fulbright Fellowship, the Paisano Fellowship in Fiction, and the Fellowship in Writing from the McCullers Center in Columbus, Georgia. Dressler is the current visiting writer at Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina.
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