What Is Left the Daughter, Howard Norman
What Is Left the Daughter, Howard Norman
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What Is Left the Daughter

Author: Howard Norman

Narrator: Bronson Pinchot

Unabridged: 7 hr 11 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/06/2010


Synopsis

Howard Norman, widely regarded as one of this countrys finest novelists, returns to the mesmerizing fictional terrain of his major booksThe Bird Artist, The Museum Guard, and The Haunting of Lin this erotically charged and morally complex story. Seventeenyearold Wyatt Hillyer is suddenly orphaned when his parents, within hours of each other, jump off two different bridgesthe result of their separate involvements with the same compelling neighbor, a Halifax switchboard operator and aspiring actress. The suicides cause Wyatt to move to smalltown Middle Economy to live with his uncle, aunt, and ravishing cousin Tilda. Setting in motion the novels chain of lifealtering passions, and the wartime perfidy at its core, is the arrival of German student Hans Mohring, carrying only a satchel. Actual historical incidentsincluding a German Uboats sinking of the Nova ScotiaNewfoundland ferry Caribou, on which Aunt Constance Hillyer might or might not be travelinglend intense narrative power to Normans uncannily layered story. Wyatts account of the astonishing events leading up to his fathering of a beloved daughter spills out twentyone years later. Its a confession that speaks profoundly of the mysteries of human character in wartime and is directed, with both despair and hope, to an audience of one. An utterly stirring novel, this is Howard Norman at his celebrated best.

About Howard Norman

Howard Norman’s novels The Northern Lights and The Bird Artist were nominated for National Book Awards. He is the author, most recently, of What Is Left the Daughter and My Darling Detective.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Elizabeth (Alaska) on May 28, 2011

... some ancient parable or other in which an elderly woman listens to her son hold forth about how much heartbreak, sour luck and spiritual depletion can be packed into a life. But talk as he might, the man from the parable fails to address the one thing his mother is most curious about. "What of......more

Goodreads review by Maciek on April 24, 2013

Howard Norman's What Is Left the Daughter is structured as a long letter written by Wyatt Hillyer to his daughter Marlais for her 21st birthday in 1967. Wyatt's letter is a confession why he has consciously chosen to not have contact with her, and an account of his life and the events leading up to......more

Goodreads review by Denise on July 27, 2010

What is Left the Daughter is one, long letter written by Wyatt Hillyer to his daughter Marlais. He writes because "I refuse any longer to have my life defined by what I haven't told you." The story begins with his parents double suicide over their love for the same woman. It goes downhill from there......more

Goodreads review by Misha on December 04, 2010

When I started reading the book, I was so sure it would be a 5 star read . But by the time, I had reached the middle, it became a little dull at parts.Don't get me wrong! This is still an amazing novel, just not as great as I expected. This book is written in the form of Wyatt, the narrator's letter......more

Goodreads review by Lawyer on August 11, 2010

A father writes a letter to his daughter whom he has not seen since she was two. It is his story to her of her family, their tragedies, and their love for one another. Set against the U-Boat war fought around Nova Scotia, Norman provides a unique look at life on the home front during the Atlantic Wa......more