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The heartrending story of an old man taking his last chance towards an elusive redemption and the distant hope of love. A brilliant novel by a writer whose work the critics have called "lyrical" and "haunting."
Tristan Martens, a retired entomologist, is shaken by the discovery of his mother's sewing table in a New York antique shop. He hasn't seen it since he was a boy in Holland, but he vividly remembers the last time he did. Only Tristan knows the painful truth behind the scrawled--and misunderstood--inscription on the bottom of the table, and he embarks on a scheme to acquire it from the shop owner, Cora Lowenstein, who insists it's not for sale.
But as their lives become entangled, Tristan must make a choice. Can he tell Cora the truth? Begun in deceit, their relationship and Tristan's salvation hinge on his willingness to confront and finally confess the terrible secrets of his family's past.
In startlingly beautiful prose resonant with dramatic tension, Mylene Dressler tells the heartrending story of an old man taking his last chance and struggling toward an elusive redemption and the even more distant hope of love. The Deadwood Beetle is a brilliant novel by a writer whose work the critics have called "lyrical" and "haunting."
Susan Vreeland, author of Girl in Hyacinth Blue
absorbing . . . compelling, and inventive.
If you liked The Deadwood Beetle, try these:
by Elizabeth Rosner
Published 2003
A powerful debut about three unforgettable souls who overcome the tragedies of the past to reconnect with one another and the world around them.
by Kazuo Ishiguro
Published 2001
An English boy born in early-twentieth-century Shanghai, is orphaned at age nine when his mother and father both vanish under suspicious circumstances. Sent to live in England, he grows up to become a renowned detective and, 20 years later, returns to Shanghai, where the Sino-Japanese War is raging.
