Publisher Comments:
Renate Dorrestein is that rare storyteller who dazzles critics and captivates readers. Provocative, stylish, and emotionally resonant, A Heart of Stone (her first book to be translated into English) is certain to cause a sensation on the international scene and Viking is proud to introduce her to the American public.
This beautifully woven masterpiece, spare yet richly told, plumbs the undercurrents of family life and tragedy in a startling and wise story of love, fate, and survival. Ellen Van Bemmel lives with her parents, who run an American news-clipping service, and her three siblings in an old Dutch house in a suburb of Amsterdam. Ellen's idyllic childhood is suffused with Americana, both the frivolous fringes like potato chips and Coca-Cola as well as milestones like Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon, until family disaster strikes on her twelfth birthday. From that moment on her world begins to unravel. Years later, Ellen plunges us into the past as she leafs through a faded photo album and confronts the literal and figurative ghosts of her childhood. Seamlessly alternating the past and present, taut with Hitchcockian tension and warmed by a redemptive love story, A Heart of Stone tells a darkly humorous, yet ultimately compassionate tale.
Growing up with her adored siblings in a rambling house in Holland - out of which her parents run an American news-clipping service - clever, precocious Ellen has an idyllic childhood suffused with Americana, both the frivolous fringes like potato chips and Coca-Cola and the milestones like Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon. Yet her seemingly carefree life is shattered when family disaster strikes on her twelfth birthday.
Twenty-five years later, Ellen returns home and plunges us into the past as she leafs through a faded photo album and confronts the literal and figurative ghosts of her childhood. Seamlessly alternating the past and present, taut with Hitchcockian tension, full of laughter, and warmed by a redemptive love story, A Heart of Stone is a wise and memorable novel that serves as a fitting introduction of this masterful novelist from the Netherlands to an American audience.
From Publishers Weekly
Dorrestein's first novel to be translated into English is a riveting psychological thriller that rates comparison with Shirley Jackson's classic, We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Like Jackson, Dorrestein excels at describing how an eccentric familyDin this case, the van Bemmels of The HagueDis tormented and finally destroyed by the growing madness of one of its members. Frits van Bemmel and his wife, Margje, have four children and a large house, in which they also run a news-clipping service. Their existence seems idyllic, until a fifth child, Ida, is born, and Margje begins acting strangely. She talks back to a divine figure, who urges her to attack her children. Ida suffers from mysterious, recurrent injuries, and the children's father refuses to see the obvious. Narrator Ellen, the third child, is a sharp, book-smart 13-year-old, who realizes something is wrong, but can do nothing but fly into hysterical rages. Twenty-five years later, Ellen finds herself back in her childhood home, alone, separated from her husband and expecting a baby. Huddled in the basement, she pages through a family picture album and forces herself to think back on the inexorable, mad decline of the household and the day when "life blew up in our faces like a time bomb." Dorrestein's exquisitely calibrated narrative becomes mesmerizing as Ellen struggles to comprehend how one day her whole family could just be wiped out and how she could have survived. (Jan.) Forecast: Several years ago, another unorthodox Dutch thriller was made into the well-received film The Vanishing; A Heart of Stone is a natural for Hollywood's attention, too. In any case, the book, a BOMC alternate, should win DorresteinDwho will embark on a six-city author tour hereDname recognition in the English-speaking world.
Book Dimension
Height (mm) 209 Width (mm) 149
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我总觉得,优秀的图书,其魅力在于能够超越语言的界限,直接触及读者内心深处的情感。这本书的精装版本,给我的第一印象就是一种沉甸甸的厚重感,它不仅仅是内容上的分量,更是一种精神上的重量,似乎承载着许多不为人知的故事和情感。它的封面设计,那种简洁却又充满力量的视觉语言,让我联想到那些在生活中经历过风雨,却依然保持着坚定信念的人们。我常常在思考,作者是如何将这种复杂而又深刻的情感,通过文字表达出来的。这本书,对我来说,就像是生活中的一个缩影,它提醒着我,即使在最艰难的时刻,也总有力量可以支撑着我们前行。
评分这本书的出现,在我看来,就像是生活中一次偶然却又注定的相遇。它的封面设计,那种低调却又充满力量的美感,以及它那富有暗示性的书名,都让我对它产生了强烈的认同感。我总觉得,那些能够触动我内心深处的情感的书籍,往往都是那些不声不响,却有着深刻内涵的作品。这本书给我带来的感觉就是如此,它让我开始思考,在那些看似坚硬的外壳之下,是否隐藏着不为人知的脆弱和温柔。我期待着它能为我带来一次深刻的阅读体验,让我能够从中获得启示,从而对生活有更清晰的认识。
评分在我看来,一本真正的好书,其价值并不仅仅在于它能带来多少娱乐,更在于它能否在你的脑海中留下长久的印记,引发你对生活更深刻的思考。这本书的命名,就仿佛为我打开了一扇通往某种内在世界的大门,它让我开始反思那些隐藏在坚硬外壳下的情感,以及那些在看似冷漠中依然保持着的温暖。我期待它能够带来一种深刻的共鸣,让我能够从故事中找到自己的影子,从而对生活有更清晰的认识。这种期待,是对作者创作能力的信任,也是对我自己在这本书中能够获得心灵启迪的期盼。
评分拿到这本书时,最先吸引我的,莫过于它那充满力量感的书名。它似乎点明了某种核心的情感或主题,一种坚定而又可能带着些许冷峻的特质。这种直击人心的命名方式,立刻就在我的脑海中勾勒出许多的可能性。是关于坚韧不拔的精神?还是关于在困境中不屈不挠的意志?又或者是关于一段深刻却又充满挑战的情感关系?这种模棱两可却又充满暗示的标题,成功地吊起了我的胃口,让我开始思考作者可能想要传达的深层含义。它不像那些过于直白的标题,而是留下了足够的想象空间,让读者可以在阅读之前就自行填充各种解读,这本身就是一种非常有趣的互动。我喜欢这种能够引发思考的标题,它就像一个引子,引导着读者去探索更广阔的意义。这种命名策略,无疑是成功的,它让我对即将展开的故事充满了好奇和期待,迫不及待地想知道作者是如何通过文字来诠释这个充满力量感的书名的。
评分我总觉得,有些书就好像是为某个特定时刻而生的,它们会在你人生的某个节点出现,恰好能触碰到你内心最柔软或最坚硬的地方。这本书给我的感觉就是如此,它的名字,它的外观,都让我觉得它蕴含着一种能够与我产生深度连接的力量。我开始思考,它是否会讲述一个关于成长、关于失去、关于如何在艰难岁月里保持自我价值的故事?或者,它会揭示人性中那些不为人知的角落,那些在坚硬外壳下,隐藏着柔软内心的挣扎?我期待它能带来一种深刻的启示,让我对生活、对情感、对自我有更清晰的认识。这种期待,是建立在对优秀作品的信任之上,我相信它有能力带给我一次触动心灵的阅读体验。
评分这本书在我的书架上占据了一个非常显眼的位置,它的存在,仿佛总是能够吸引我的目光,并引发我内心的某种共鸣。我总觉得,一本真正的好书,不仅仅是文字的堆砌,它应该能够触及到灵魂深处,与读者的内心产生一种深刻的连接。这本《A Heart of Stone》给我的感觉就是如此。它的存在,让我联想到许多关于人性的复杂之处,关于情感的起伏跌宕,关于在生活洪流中那些不为人知的坚韧与挣扎。我常常在闲暇之余,会不自觉地望向它,思考着它可能蕴含的种种情感内核,想象着作者是如何将这些复杂的元素编织成一个引人入胜的故事。这种由外在的实体联想到内在的情感世界,是阅读体验中非常美妙的一部分,它让阅读变得更加立体和富有层次。它让我感觉到,这不仅仅是一本我可以阅读的书,更是一个可以让我去感悟、去思考、去连接的载体。
评分仅仅是看到这本书的精装版本,我就已经被它所散发出的品质感所折服。精装书本身就代表着一种对阅读的尊重和对内容的重视,它不仅仅是文字的载体,更是一种物质上的享受。而《A Heart of Stone》的精装,更是达到了令人赞叹的水平,无论是纸张的质感,还是印刷的精美,都无不展现出一种匠心独运。这种厚实而又温润的触感,让人在翻阅时感受到一种愉悦,仿佛每一次翻动,都是在与一件珍贵的艺术品对话。我一直相信,好的书籍,应该在形式上也同样令人赏心悦目,它应该是一种全方位的阅读体验,从视觉到触觉,再到心灵。而这本书,无疑在这一点上做得非常出色,它在未读内容之前,就已经成功地俘获了我的心,让我对它充满了更高的期待。
评分从这本书的整体气质来看,我预感它会是一部相当有深度的作品。那些封面上的细节,那种沉静而又不失力量的设计,都传递出一种成熟和内敛的风格。我通常会比较偏爱那些不追求浮夸、不迎合潮流,而是专注于打磨作品本身的内涵的书籍。这本书似乎就具备了这样的特质,它不张扬,却有着一种能够缓缓渗透进人心的力量。我想象中的作者,必定是一位对生活有着深刻洞察,并且能够用细腻的笔触去捕捉人性微妙之处的写作者。这样的作品,往往能够经得起时间的考验,并且在每一次重读时,都能有新的发现和感悟。我对它的期待,不仅仅是故事的吸引力,更是其背后所蕴含的智慧和对人生的思考。这种期待,源于我对那些能够触及灵魂、引发共鸣的文学作品的珍视。
评分在我看来,一本能够引起读者强烈好奇心的书,往往就成功了一半。而《A Heart of Stone》凭借其独具匠心的命名和包装,无疑已经在这方面表现出色。它所传达出的那种略带神秘和复杂的情绪,让我不禁想要去一探究竟,去揭开它面纱下的真实面貌。我喜欢那些能够激发我思考的书,它们不只是提供故事,更重要的是,它们能引发我对于人生、对于情感、对于人性更深层次的探索。这本书的名字,就如同一个谜语,让我迫不及待地想要去寻找答案,去理解作者究竟想要通过“一块石头的心”来表达什么。这种由好奇心驱动的阅读,往往是最纯粹、也最令人期待的。
评分这本书的封面设计就足够吸引人了,那种粗粝的触感,配上深沉的色调,仿佛在低语着一个古老而深刻的故事。我第一次拿到它的时候,指尖传来的质感就让我对它充满了期待。它并非那种轻飘飘的、容易翻烂的读物,而是一种沉甸甸的、值得细细品味的厚重感。包装的细致程度也让人惊喜,每一处细节都透露出一种对作品本身的尊重,让人在打开它之前就有一种仪式感,仿佛即将踏上一场非凡的旅程。这种精心设计的包装,不仅是一种视觉上的享受,更是一种情感上的连接,让我觉得这不仅仅是一本书,更是一件值得珍藏的艺术品。它的重量,它的材质,它散发出的淡淡的油墨香,都共同营造出一种独属于阅读的温暖和静谧,让我在纷繁的世界中找到了一个可以安心栖息的角落。我特别喜欢它边缘的处理,那种细致的打磨,即使是作为一本纸质书,也显得格外精致,丝毫没有毛糙感。总而言之,在未读内容之前,仅仅是这本书本身,就已经给了我强烈的阅读欲望,迫不及待地想 dive into the world it holds within its pages.
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