The Masterpiece

Anna Enquist

ISBN 10: 1902881052 / ISBN 13: 9781902881058

Published by Toby Pr October 1999, 1999

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 538994

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Masterpiece
• Publisher: Toby Pr October 1999
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1902881052
• ISBN 13: 9781902881058
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: USED Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
• Seller catalogs:
  • LITERATURE Fiction HC

About this title

Synopsis

One of the finest novelists and poets writing in the Netherlands today, Anna Enquist's first novel took the Dutch and German reading public by storm. The Masterpiece takes place during three days in the life of the painter Johan Steenkamer, a nd of the women closest to him. Is an artist as self-absorbed as Johan capable of expressing the deepest emotional understanding through his art, or is his seductive energy entirely selfish, a surface gloss.

Enquist's impassioned novel revolves around the artist Johan Steenkamer, the women who are drawn to him, and his troubled family relationships; an absent father, manipulative mother, emotionally crippled brother. The three days leading up to the opening o f his grand exhibition are depicted with a dramatic sense of light and shade; Enquist describes making jam and making love with equally vivid intensity. Present events are shadowed by the past, and the section describing the loss of Steenkamer's daughter is an exploration of grief that will leave no reader unmoved.

There are undertones of Don Giovanni in the portrayal of the central character and in moments of the narrative; timeless dilemmas are counterpointed with those familiar to all contemporary working women. This elegantly translated, beautifully observed and affecting novel introduces to English-speaking audiences the work of one of Europe's finest writers.

Translated by Jeannette K. Ringold.

About the Author

Anna Enquist a psychoanalyst and classically trained musician, was born in 1945. She began to write poetry a few years ago, as she said, "from one day to the next." Today, she is one of the Netherlands' best-selling poets, with a large readersh ip in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Sweden.