Charlie Johnson in the Flames
This short, intense novel tells the story of Charlie Johnson, a war correspondent working in the Balkans during the recent conflict there. Charlie, hardened to the realities of war but not yet insensitive to the human beings experiencing daily trauma, is accompanied by his cameraman and best friend, Jacek, a melancholy, reliable Pole. The story focuses on a single event and its aftermath. While hiding in a contested village, Charlie sees a peasant woman set alight and tries to put the fire out with his bare hands. After his recovery, he grows obsessed with his memory of the woman, who was rescued by helicopter but eventually died. He returns to the Balkan danger zones to hunt down the high-ranked soldier who murdered her, not to kill him but to simply ask, "Why? " Ignatieff, an internationally known Canadian journalist who has examined the Balkan war in such nonfiction books as Virtual War, places the reader in burned-out villages and tense, ugly towns with uncanny clarity. An old rundown hotel has "Third Reich corridors, curving, carpeted, high-ceilinged and dim. " The Balkans at war are a haunting and dangerous place, which makes Charlie's return there difficult to understand, even for him, yet entirely believable. As Jacek says, "We suffer from too much experience, " and Charlie, whose life feels empty and undirected, hungers for answers. All the characters, including the locals, Charlie's burdened wife, and Etta, his lover from the home office in London, leap off the page into reality. This is a highly filmic work, disturbing, engaged, utterly convincing. --Mark Frutkin Author(s): Michael Ignatieff. Binding Paperback. Publisher(s): Penguin Canada. Label: Penguin Canada.
| Fabricant: | Penguin Canada |
| Numéro de la pièce: | |
| Prix le plus bas (CAD): | 61,94 $ |
Caractéristiques du produit |
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| Auteur : | Michael Ignatieff |
| Format : | Paperback |
| Marque : | Penguin Canada (APB) |
