In the Shape of a Boar by Lawrence Norfolk
"In the Shape of a Boar" links pre-history with the darkest events of the twentieth century and the personal history of one man in an intricate, compulsively readable tale. In pre-Homeric times, the Greek heroes - and one heroine - united one last time to hunt down the ferocious Boar of Kalydon, sent by Artemis to ravage the land. Within the ancient sources lies a darker tale - one of treachery among the hunters and a destructive love affair. Three and a half millennia later, the hunt for the Boar of Kalydon is re-enacted, and once again re-told. In the final months of the Second World War, Greek partisans pursue their quarry - an SS officer - in the same mountains the ancient Boar of Kalydon once roamed. Witness to the hunt is Sol Memel, a young Rumanian-Jewish poet fleeing for his life. Sol has lost his family and abandoned his lover, Ruth. Sol's role in the SS officer's eventual capture and killing inspires him to rewrite the ancient myth as a poem. "Die Keilerjagd" is acclaimed throughout post-war Europe and Sol is hailed as the voice of a generation. But "Die Keilerjagd" contains its own secret. When Ruth reappears twenty-five years later and proposes a film based on the writing of the poem, Sol finds himself cast as the quarry in this new telling of the tale. Under the camera's unforgiving lens, the ghosts of Sol's wartime past materialise - behind them stand the ghosts of ancient Greece, the long-dead heroes who hold the truth behind the story of the original hunt.
Lawrence Norfolk was born in 1963. He won the Somerset Maugham Award for his first novel, Lempriere's Dictionary.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780297646181 |
| ISBN 10 | 0297646184 |
| Title | In the Shape of a Boar |
| Author | Lawrence Norfolk |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Orion Publishing Co |
| Year published | 2000-09-28 |
| Number of pages | 352 |
| Prizes | Short-listed for Jewish Quarterly Wingate Literary Prize: Fiction 2000 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |