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1950, 1996: A story of emotional turmoil, love and hope
1950, 1996: A story of emotional turmoil, love and hope
It begins with a painting won in a raffle: fifteen sunflowers, hung on the wall by a woman who believes that men and boys are capable of beautiful things.
And then there are two boys, Ellis and Michael,
who are inseparable.
And the boys become men,
and then Annie walks into their lives,
and it changes nothing and everything.
Along Cowley Road, orange streetlight scattered across the tar, and ghosts of shops long gone lurked in the mists of recollection
“He passed the old Regal cinema where thirty years ago, Billy Graham, the evangelist preacher, had beamed out from the big screen to 1,500 of his faithful. Shop keepers and passers-by had fathered on the pavement to watch the masses stream out from its doors.”
Here’s a place all book lovers have to go to:
“he crossed Magdalen Bridge into the other country where the air smelt of books”
This is where the original painting is located – the National Gallery
The study of Van Gogh and his paintings is nicely illustrated in this novel:
“To become a better artist. I like to imagine how it would have been for him, stepping out of the train station at Arles into such an intense yellow light. It changed him. How could it not? How could it not change anyone?
Destination: Oxford, London, Arles Author/Guide: Sarah Winman Departure Time: 1950, 1996
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