"The last words his grandfather said to him…were, you are Konar now, the branch. The characters speak with portentous gravity, and their diction is rich and lyrical - sometimes outright cryptic.
When Krivak writes about Jozef's life in Dardan during the 1930s or Becks's experiences in Europe during the war, his prose has a timbre that verges on biblical or Homeric. However, what stands out most about Krivak's style in this book, is the way it shifts to give the different time periods a distinct atmosphere. He moves from thrilling war sequences to intimate domestic scenes with an easy facility, and the fluidity of his language deftly guides you through the dense, detailed narrative. Krivak is a powerful writer, and his talents are on display throughout the book. When he returns home, he is suffering from a crippling heroin addiction and finds that his girlfriend is engaged to marry his brother. Decades later, his son Sam is taken prisoner and tortured while serving in Vietnam. Somerville author Andrew Krivak is the author of "Like the Appearance of Horse." (Courtesy the publishers photo by Sharona Jacobs)Īfter getting separated from his unit, Becks is sheltered by a network of Roma resistance fighters who help him get in touch with his heritage and draw him back to Hungary, where he exacts righteous revenge against his people's oppressors. Years later, Beck and Vinch's daughter get married, and he goes on to fight in World War II. He's been sent by his grandfather in an effort to shield him from the persecution of Hungary's fascist Arrow Cross Party. Fourteen-year-old half-Roma Bexhet "Becks" Konar shows up in Dardan looking for the man who saved his life as a newborn baby, Jozef Vinich. Picking up a thread from the first book, Krivak kicks things off in 1933. After a brief detour to imagine the end of humanity in his 2020 novel, "The Bear," Somerville author Andrew Krivak returns to Dardan, Pennsylvania, to continue the story of the Vinich family in a follow up to his first two novels, "The Sojourn" and "The Signal Flame." The latest entry in this saga, "Like the Appearance of Horses," weaves through those earlier books, giving insight into how war shaped the fates and fortunes of a proud, tight-knit family across generations.
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