War and Turpentine Summary
Stefan Hertmans

War and Turpentine Overview

A work that blends fiction and biography, Stefan Hertmans’s historical novel War and Turpentine explores the importance of memory and how emotions experience turmoil through time. Reflecting on his grandfather Urbain Martien's notebooks, the unnamed first-person narrator reflects on the elder's memories of art, war, and love, tracing the thread through all three that imbued a sense of meaning through the former soldier's life.