Flanders, Paperback

Description

"A harrowing and beautiful novel, demonstrating -- again -- that Patricia Anthony is one of our great writers." -- Publishers Weekly

In this gritty look at World War I's trench warfare, a young American sharpshooter ventures into no man's land each night to be ready by daybreak for the grim business of slaying record numbers of enemies. But Travis Lee Stanhope, a Texan serving with an English unit, is haunted by ghosts of the men he's killed as well as those of his fallen comrades. As he hovers on the brink of a transcendent experience, Travis gradually realizes that although he is surrounded by death, his true mission is related to life.
A New York Times and American Library Association Notable Book, this tale was acclaimed by Booklist as "a haunting, sometimes almost hallucinatory, yet surprising war novel" and by Kirkus Reviews as "mesmerizing ... highly textured and brimming with insight."

"Flanders ranks close to All Quiet on the Western Front in its impact." -- San Francisco Chronicle

"Anthony's subtle and innovative storytelling reaches a new plane in her latest novel, a foray into magical realism that contrasts the waking hell of war with the fragile peace of eternity." -- Library Journal About the Author

Patricia Anthony (1947-2013) is noted for her slipstream fiction, which crosses conventional boundaries between science fiction, fantasy, and literary fiction. In 1992 she published her first science-fiction novel, Cold Allies, which recounts the arrival of extraterrestrials during World War III. Her subsequent stories moved further and further from traditional science fiction, culminating in the 1998 novel Flanders, which resides in the realm of magical realism.