Memento Park, Mark Sarvas
Memento Park, Mark Sarvas
List: $26.99 | Sale: $18.89
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Memento Park
A Novel

Author: Mark Sarvas

Narrator: David Ledoux

Unabridged: 9 hr 7 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/13/2018


Synopsis

A son learns more about his father than he ever could have imagined when a mysterious piece of art is unexpectedly restored to him

After receiving an unexpected call from the Australian consulate, Matt Santos becomes aware of a painting that he believes was looted from his family in Hungary during the Second World War. To recover the painting, he must repair his strained relationship with his harshly judgmental father, uncover his family history, and restore his connection to his own Judaism. Along the way to illuminating the mysteries of his past, Matt is torn between his doting girlfriend, Tracy, and his alluring attorney, Rachel, with whom he travels to Budapest to unearth the truth about the painting and, in turn, his family.

As his journey progresses, Matt’s revelations are accompanied by equally consuming and imaginative meditations on the painting and the painter at the center of his personal drama, Budapest Street Scene by Ervin Kálmán. By the time Memento Park reaches its conclusion, Matt’s narrative is as much about family history and father-son dynamics as it is about the nature of art itself, and the infinite ways we come to understand ourselves through it.

Of all the questions asked by Mark Sarvas’s Memento Park—about family and identity, about art and history—a central, unanswerable predicament lingers: How do we move forward when the past looms unreasonably large?

About Mark Sarvas

Mark Sarvas is the author of the novel Harry, Revised, which was published in more than a dozen countries around the world. His book reviews and criticism have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Threepenny Review, Bookforum, and many others. He is a member of the National Book Critics Circle, PEN/America, and PEN Center USA, and teaches novel writing at the UCLA Extension Writers Program. A reformed blogger, he lives in Santa Monica, California.

About David Ledoux

David Ledoux has narrated a range of audiobooks, for which he has won and been nominated for several Audie and Earphones Awards. His narrations include Jonathan Franzen's Freedom, Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants, and Douglas Copeland's Hey Nostradamus! Additionally, Ledoux performs several roles on the animated series Kenny the Shark on the Discovery Kids Network. An accomplished stage performer, David has acted as Romeo in the Jean Cocteau Repertory production of Romeo & Juliet, Macduff in Macbeth, Cleonte in The Would Be Gentleman, and Chris in the world premiere of First Day.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Angela M on April 03, 2018

There have been a number of books published these last few years about a lost and found painting which becomes the link between a past and present narrative. At first I wasn’t sure if I was up for another one like this, but the book description promised more. I’m glad I took a chance because I wasn’......more

Goodreads review by PattyMacDotComma on January 12, 2022

4.5★ “ . . . and I can only think about all I have squandered, the astonishing lack of care with which I have blundered through life. So much beyond recovery, things that can never be restored, truths devoured by time, by neglect.” Matt Santos is sitting in an auction house, after closing time, in fro......more

Goodreads review by Tim on November 20, 2018

An introspective very well written novel about a Jewish man with Hungarian roots and his relationship with his father and how it is altered after his father's death by a painting. The narrator is a B-list actor, emotionally immature and prone to self-pity. He blames his undemonstrative taciturn fath......more

Goodreads review by Kati on January 28, 2018

There were many reasons I requested this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I was born and raised in Hungary, I am Jewish and my family lost many members during the Holocaust. I grew up in communist Hungary and left for America way before the fall of communism. I have been back a......more

Goodreads review by Robert on June 23, 2018

This is a beautifully written story of a son trying to connect with a distant father wrapped around a mystery involving a painting that was discovered that had been stolen from a Hungarian Jewish family by the Nazis in WWII. Matt is a semi-successful young actor in Hollywood, the son of a Hungarian......more


Awards

  • American Book Award Winner