Brooks Hansen

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

Washington

Or, the Twilight Letters of Gustav Uyterhoeven

From Dayton, Ohio, to a magical land known as the Antipodes where game pieces come to life, The Chess Garden by Brooks Hansen brilliantly juxtaposes the real and the surreal. Compared to such fabulists as C.S. Lewis, Lewis Carroll, Nabokov, and Italo Calvino, Hansen gives us a tale of spiritual awakening that is both anchored in reality and embellished by the imagination. In the fall of 1900, Dr. Gustav Uyterhoeven leaves the chess garden that he and his wife, Sonja, created together in Dayton, Ohio, and travels to South Africa to serve as a doctor in the British concentration camps of the Boer War. Over the next ten months he sends twelve letters back to Sonja, each accompanied by a chess piece. Sonja sets out the gifts as they arrive and invites the most faithful guests of the garden to come hear her read aloud her husband's letters. These letters tell nothing of Uyterhoeven's experiences in South Africa, but rather tell a spiritual allegory, described through the imagined land of the Antipodes, where all the chessmen and game pieces from the Chess Garden come to life to guide the doctor through his fateful and wondrous last adventure. Largely set in a fantastic land of improbabilities, The Chess Garden also encompasses a very real world. Interspersed throughout the novel is the story of Dr. Uyterhoeven's life--his youth in Holland and his courtship with Sonja, his troubled medical career in Berlin, the tragic life of his son, and his subsequent spiritual conversion in South Africa. In the end, fact and fantasy come together and lead back to Dayton and the Chess Garden. A winning combination of history, allegory, and fantasy, The Chess Garden is a literary tour-de- force--the arrival of a young and gifted storyteller.

Category - Fiction / General Fiction

Format - Paperback

Condition - Good

Listed - A year ago

Views - 8

Wishes - 1

Ships From - Washington

Est. Publication Date - Nov 1996

Additional Information

Publisher Description

The Chess Garden

By:

$7.00

Condition

Format

Meet the seller

Discover more

The Chess Garden

By: Brooks Hansen

Pango Buyer Protection

'The Chess Garden' readers also enjoyed:

Additional titles by Brooks Hansen

Recently Viewed

Browse by categories

Category - Fiction / General Fiction

Format - Paperback

Condition - Good

Listed - A year ago

Views - 8

Wishes - 1

Ships From - Washington

Est. Publication Date - Nov 1996

Additional Information

Publisher Description

The Chess Garden

By:

$7.00

Condition

Format

Meet the seller

Discover more

The Chess Garden

By: Brooks Hansen

Pango Buyer Protection

'The Chess Garden' readers also enjoyed:

Additional titles by Brooks Hansen

Recently Viewed