Girl in Hyacinth Blue

Regular price RM40.58 MYR
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Painting's journey reveals humanity's complex facets.

If you've ever felt captivated by the mysterious aura that surrounds a piece of art, "Girl in Hyacinth Blue" is for you. Susan Vreeland skillfully intertwines the past and present, reflecting on the profound impact art can have on various lives across centuries. Each story surrounding this painting is a brushstroke in an elaborate canvas, painting how beauty and humanity persist despite adversity. It’s a compelling voyage through time, and with every page, you might find a bit of yourself within the colors of this literary masterpiece.

  • Book Sense Book of the Year Award Nominee for Adult (2000)
  • San Diego Theodor S. Geisel Award (2000)
Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.

Girl in Hyacinth Blue

Regular price RM40.58 MYR
Unit price
per
ISBN: 9781878448903
Authors: Susan Vreeland
Publisher: MacMurray & Beck
Date of Publication: 1999-09-01
Format: Hardcover
Goodreads rating: 3.74
(rated by 39893 readers)

Description

A Dutch painting of a young girl, possibly a Vermeer, survives three and a half centuries through loss, flood, anonymity, secrecy, theft, even the Holocaust. This is the story of its sometimes desperate owners whose lives are influenced by its seductive beauty and mystery, and whose defining moments take place in its presence. Despite their unsatisfied longings, their own and others' flaws, the girl in hyacinth blue has the power to generate love in all its human variety. The German-American son of the Nazi who looted it from a Jewish home in Amsterdam in 1942 hides it out of shame for his father's atrocities, loves it with awe and passion, wrestles with moral questions of unlawful ownership and his own responsibilities of penance and restitution, and, like his father, ultimately fails as a human being. The rest of the eight stories which make up this composite novel move back in time to the Renaissance. In each episode, the painting figures in casual affairs, natural catastrophe, flawed marriages, domestic violence, a murder, a hanging, yet in spite of these dreary circumstances, the power of beauty and art elevates the characters in individual, subtle ways.
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Painting's journey reveals humanity's complex facets.

If you've ever felt captivated by the mysterious aura that surrounds a piece of art, "Girl in Hyacinth Blue" is for you. Susan Vreeland skillfully intertwines the past and present, reflecting on the profound impact art can have on various lives across centuries. Each story surrounding this painting is a brushstroke in an elaborate canvas, painting how beauty and humanity persist despite adversity. It’s a compelling voyage through time, and with every page, you might find a bit of yourself within the colors of this literary masterpiece.

  • Book Sense Book of the Year Award Nominee for Adult (2000)
  • San Diego Theodor S. Geisel Award (2000)
Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.