About the Book
Finalist for NYPL Young Lions Award!
In the summer of 1918, with the Germans threatening Paris, Edward Steichen arrives in France to photograph the war from the air for the American army. France is full of poignant memories for him: early artistic successes, marriage, and a love affair that divided his family. It is also where he was forced to abandon his paintings, photographs, and negatives -- his entire life's work -- when the war began.
Flying over the fields of France, Steichen struggles of understand what went wrong with his seemingly idyllic life. His search for answers takes him into his own complex past, toward a painful self-understanding and the discovery of new ways of seeing the world.
Reviews
Publishers' Weekly (starred review): "First time novelist Mitchell pulls
off the dazzling trick of allowing readers to see through the eyes of
art-photography pioneer Edward Steichenin her excellent reconsideration
of his life and art. This would be merely impressive if the book
confined itself to the stormy end of
Steichen's first marriage, a subtheme that gets its due and packs a
psychological punch. Instead, Mitchell follows Steichen through his
airborne reconnaissance work during WWI, providing a devastating
portrait of the insanity of war in general and the Great War in
particular... this commanding novel is about the images one can never
quite burn from memory."
Booklist (starred review; full text subscription only)
Providence Journal ("Books We Loved 2007")
Madison Capital Times (A Best Book of 2007)
Austin American Statesman (A Best Book of 2007)
Kirkus Reviews (full text subscription only)
Library Journal (full text suscription only)
