Description - These Are The Names by Tommy Wieringa
With a rare blend of humour and wisdom, Tommy Wieringa links man's dark nature with the question of who we are and whether redemption is possible.
A border town on the steppe. A small group of emaciated and feral refugees appears out of nowhere, spreading fear and panic in the town. When police commissioner Pontus Beg orders their arrest, evidence of a murder is found in their luggage. As he begins to unravel the history of their hellish journey, it becomes increasingly intertwined with the search for his own origins that he has embarked upon. Now he becomes the group's inquisitor . . . and, finally, something like their saviour.
Beg's likeability as a character and his dry-eyed musings considering the nature of religion keep the reader pinned to the page from the start. At the same time, the apocalyptic atmosphere of the group's exodus across the steppes becomes increasingly vivid and laden with meaning as the novel proceeds, in seeming synchronicity with the development of Beg's character.
With a rare blend of humour and wisdom, Tommy Wieringa links man's dark nature with the question of who we are and whether redemption is possible.
'This is an important and profoundly felt book about displacement and migration, but it is also fast-paced, often humorous, and full of lyric power. The prose is snappy and contemporary, but Wieringa's themes are timeless ones.'
-Patrick McGuinness
' A quiet masterpiece ... A magnum opus from a leading young writer takes on the meaning of exile, identity, faith, and the limits of endurance.' STARRED REVIEW
-Kirkus Reviews
'Bestselling Dutch writer Wieringa's novel offers two searing portrayals of transformation on the unforgiving Eurasian Steppe ... There are echoes of John Steinbeck's intrepid dust bowl survivors, the voyeuristic allure of Franz Kafka's "The Hunger Artist", and the quiet nihilism and documentary detail of British novelist Jim Crace. Wieringa, whose longtime collaboration with translator Sam Garrett pays off again with deft, muscular prose perfectly suited to the author's harrowing vision, strips lives bare and drills to their essence.' STARRED REVIEW
-Publishers Weekly
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