The Nature of Blood - Softcover
In his most ambitious novel to date, Phillips creates a dazzling kaleidoscope of historical fiction, one that illuminates the dark legacy of Europe's obsession with race and blood. At the center of The Nature of Blood is a young woman, a Nazi death camp survivor, devastated by the loss of everyone she loves. Her story is interwoven with a cast of characters from both the present and past: her uncle Stephan, Othello the Moorish general, three Jews in 15th century Venice, and an Ethiopian Jew struggling for acceptance in contemporary Israel. Tracing these characters through disparate lands and centuries, Phillips creates an unforgettable group portrait of individuals overwhelmed by the force of European tribalism.
"An extraordinarily perceptive and intelligent novel, and a haunting one."--New York Times
"An extraordinarily perceptive and intelligent novel, and a haunting one."--New York Times
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Review:
Like his earlier works, the novels Cambridge and Crossing the River, Caryl Phillips's The Nature of Blood is made up of several stories that take place over a large span of time. The result of this innovative technique is that themes, characters, and incidents resonate against one another, and history is seen not as a straight line but as a circle or a spiral. In one story, a Jewish man abandons his family to fight for the state of Israel. In another, the Moor Othello, another soldier who has left his family, comes to Venice. There, he visits the Jewish ghetto and finds himself astounded that "they should choose to live in this manner." Phillips's most daring feat in this provocative and thoughtful novel, however, may be to write in the first person about a Holocaust survivor just after World War II.
From the Back Cover:
"Eloquent and unique ... [Phillips] offers moving accounts of lives afflicted by racism and ethnic hatred--[His] exploration of how individual journeys and historical forces intersect makes for an unforgettable novel." - Maclean's
"A consummate storyteller.... [Phillips] is one of the best and brightest of contemporary novelists.... [The Nature of Blood] could flounder in the hands of someone without the absolute mastery of historical detail that Phillips commands.... Brilliantly crafted." - The Montreal Gazette
"The Nature of Blood is expertly paced and laced with poetic flashes. Phillips is seamless in his transitions... a skillfully wrought, penetrating dissection of the debilitating and literally maddening effects of ethnic hatred, and of heroic stamina of the human spirit in the face of it." - The Globe and Mail
"Rich and powerful...[Phillips] has written an astonishing novel: ambitious, pithy, beautifully written and -- above all -- brave enough to tackle the great, public issues of our century without pity, prurience or maudlin sentiment." - Independent on Sunday
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- PublisherVintage
- Publication date1998
- ISBN 10 0679776753
- ISBN 13 9780679776758
- BindingPaperback
- Edition number1
- Number of pages224
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. In his most ambitious novel to date, Phillips creates a dazzling kaleidoscope of historical fiction, one that illuminates the dark legacy of Europe's obsession with race and blood. At the center of The Nature of Blood is a young woman, a Nazi death camp survivor, devastated by the loss of everyone she loves. Her story is interwoven with a cast of characters from both the present and past: her uncle Stephan, Othello the Moorish general, three Jews in 15th century Venice, and an Ethiopian Jew struggling for acceptance in contemporary Israel. Tracing these characters through disparate lands and centuries, Phillips creates an unforgettable group portrait of individuals overwhelmed by the force of European tribalism."An extraordinarily perceptive and intelligent novel, and a haunting one."--New York Times In his most ambitious novel to date, Phillips creates a dazzling kaleidoscope of historical fiction, one that illuminates the dark legacy of Europe's obsession with race and blood. At the center of The Nature of Blood is a young woman, a Nazi death camp survivor, devastated by the loss of everyone she loves. Her story is interwoven with a cast of characters from both the present and past: her uncle Stephan, Othello the Moorish general, three Jews in 15th century Venice, and an Ethiopian Jew struggling for acceptance in contemporary Israel. Tracing these characters through disparate lands and centuries, Phillips creates an unforgettable group portrait of individuals overwhelmed by the force of European tribalism. "An extraordinarily perceptive and intelligent novel, and a haunting one."—New York Times Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780679776758
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The Nature of Blood
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. First American. New York, NY, Knopf, 1998. First American edition. SIGNED BY AUTHOR. 8vo. Paperback in black and deep red/decorated cardboard sleeve, 212 pages. A German Jewish girl whose life and death are shaped by the atrocities of World War II her uncle, who undermines the sureties of his own life in order to fight for Israeli statehood.the Jews of the sixteenth century Venetian ghetto, trapped both literally and figuratively by rabid prejudice.Othello, newly arrived in Venice.a young Ethiopian Jewish woman resettled in Israel: these are the people whose stories fill The Nature of Blood and who, despite their clear differences, share the weight of memory as burden and sustenance. Their individual voices speak out profound depths of feeling about their worlds and their experiences of persecution, courage, and betrayal. But they move beyond the particulars of their stories as well, their voices twining in an intricate narrative fabric that tells the larger story of ethnic hatred and racism; of the power of faith and the shock of its loss; of the cruel patterns of repetition that mar humankind's history, and the crystalline significance of each individual within its sweep. New. Signed by Author(s). Seller Inventory # EM-B1185-12
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The Nature of Blood
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Book Description paperback. Condition: New. First Edition. Special order direct from the distributor. Seller Inventory # ING9780679776758
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