Lost in September : a novel
Through Kathleen Winter's incredible act of empathy, we enter the world of a character named General James Wolfe--a tall, red-haired, homeless thirty-something ex-soldier, battered by PTSD--as he camps out on the streets of modern-day Quebec City, trying to remember and reclaim his youth. In creating this extraordinary character, Kathleen Winter pored over the real-life letters of General Wolfe, which were acquired by the University of Toronto in 2013 for an astronomical sum. The letters, written to his mother, begin when he was a child soldier of 13, and end when he was 32, already a scarred veteran of war, just two weeks before his famous death on the Plains of Abraham. What emerges from this little-seen cache is the opposite of the public face: history portrays Wolfe as the iconic victor but his correspondence reveals a lifelong struggle with melancholy and trauma, a desperate longing for poetry, dance, enlightenment. It also depicts how, at 25, Wolfe was awarded a two-week study leave in Paris. He was ecstatic... but before he could depart, Britain adopted Europe's Gregorian calendar and the entire country lost eleven days forever: September 2 was followed by September 14. Wolfe forfeited his longed-for leave, and exactly 7 years later, on September 13, 1759, he died. In her inventive retelling, Winter gives Wolfe the gift of those lost eleven days in September--but in a different era: he is dropped into the world of contemporary Quebec. Her befuddled soldier is determined to reclaim his time and understand what has become of the British North America for which he'd abandoned his personal happiness. What he finds is not an answer, but unsettling questions about the price war exacts and the cost of all empires, past and present.
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- ISBN: 9780345810120
- Physical Description 291 pages ; 24 cm
- Publisher [Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], 2017.
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Summary
Lost in September
Long-awaited, thrilling new fiction from Kathleen Winter, whose previous novel Annabel was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller, Governor General's Award, Writers' Trust and Orange prizes, was a Globe and Mail "Best Book" and a New York Times "Notable," and was a #1 bestselling Canada Reads selection. From one of Canada's most exciting writers comes a gripping, compassionate and stunning novel that overturns and rewrites history. Enter the world of Jimmy--a tall, red-haired, homeless thirty-something ex-soldier, battered by PTSD--as he camps out on the streets of modern-day Montreal, trying to remember and reclaim his youth. While his past is something of an enigma, even to himself, the young man bears a striking resemblance to General James Wolfe, "Conqueror of Canada" and "Hero of Quebec," who died on the Plains of Abraham in 1759. As a young soldier in his twenties, the historical James Wolfe (1727-1759) was granted a short and much longed-for leave to travel to Paris to study poetry, music and dance--three of his passions. But in that very year, 1752, the British Empire abandoned the Julian calendar for the Gregorian, and every citizen of England lost eleven days: September 2 was followed by September 14. These lost eleven days happened to occur during the period that Wolfe had been granted for his leave. Despondent and bitter, he never got the chance to explore his artistic bent, and seven short years later, on the anniversary of this foreshortened leave, he died on the Plains of Abraham. Now, James is getting his eleven days back . . . but instead of the salons of 18th century Paris, he's wandering the streets of present-day Montreal and Quebec City, not as "the Hero of Quebec" but as a damaged war veteran wracked with anguish. Much like George Saunders in Lincoln in the Bardo , award-winning author Kathleen Winter takes a brief, intensely personal incident in the life of a famous historical figure, and using her incomparable gifts as a fiction writer, powerfully reimagines him. Here is a wrenching, unforgettable portrait--like none you have ever seen or read--of one of the most well-known figures in Canadian history.
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