Here is something for wander-writers to ponder: What if you had no words to think with or communicate? What if you had to tell your stories in pictures and facial expressions? What if you had no language? Could you even write about someone in this predicament? Georgina Harding did in her novel, Painter of Silence.
Painter of Silence is told from the point of view of Safta, young Romanian woman and Tinu, the son of one of her family’s servants. The two do not share a romantic bond, but have been friends their entire lives. They understand one another. Which is surprising since the man was a deaf-mute from birth with no understanding of functional language. Words mean nothing when letters have no sound. They are only shapes. Tinu’s only language is art.
Luckily, Georgina Harding is a beautifully visual writer. Her prose waxes lyrical and is the kind of languid reading you savor on long winter nights. It’s not a quick read. It’s a deep and absorbing read. The characters soak into you and haunt you they way they do when you look at a master-painting.
What wander-readers will love:
There are many WWII stories told from German, British, French, and American points of view. This is the first novel I’ve ever read about the great war told from a Romanian perspective. Painter of Silence was a unique look at a story I though was already well-explored in literature. Seeing how the war affected Romanian lives and landscapes was stunning. When it’s experienced through the eyes of a man with no way of understanding what what was happening or what it meant was deeply moving.
Read ~ Write ~ Wander
~Angie
<iframe style=”width:120px;height:240px;” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ src=”//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=ss_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=wand0b-20&marketplace=amazon®ion=US&placement=B008AW5M9Y&asins=B008AW5M9Y&linkId=R3FDPW7R6S673XET&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true”>
</iframe>