This Strange Eventful History

This is a new book. Condition: Brand New.

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'An epic family odyssey' Guardian, Book of the Day

Over seven decades, from 1940 to 2010, the Cassar family is buffeted by conflict, struggling to find its feet - separated in the chaos of World War II, running from a complicated colonial homeland, and, after Algerian independence, without a homeland at all.

This Strange Eventful History is above all a family story: of patriarch Gaston and his wife Lucienne, whose myth of perfect love sustains them and stifles their children; of Fran ois and Denise, devoted siblings connected by their family's strangeness; of Fran ois's union with Barbara, a woman so culturally different they can barely comprehend one another; of Chloe, the result of that union, who believes that telling these buried stories will bring them all peace.

Inspired in part by her own family's history, Claire Messud animates her characters' rich interior lives amid the social and political upheaval of the recent past. This Strange Eventful History is an immersive, masterful story of a family born on the wrong side of history.

'[A] wise and insightful novel about identity and family' The Times, Book of the Day

'A rich, sprawling saga... This Strange Eventful History may be Messud's finest book' Sunday Telegraph

Book details and technical specifications

Format: Paperback / softback
ISBN13: 9780349127071
Published: May 2025

Number of pages: 448
Width: 126 mm
Height: 196 mm
Depth: 38 mm

Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group