A Place in Normandy

Front Cover
Henry Holt and Company, May 20, 2014 - Travel - 272 pages
1 Review
Reviews aren't verified, but Google checks for and removes fake content when it's identified

In 1920, Nicholas Kilmer's grandfather Frederick Frieseke, one of the preeminent American impressionists, purchased a farmhouse in Mesnil, a Norman town almost completely (to quote a local taxi driver) sunken away dans la nature. Until his death in 1939 he lived and painted there in the company of his wife and daughter.

Long after the war that devastated Normandy, when Kilmer's grandmother's body was carried back from America to be buried alongside her husband in Mesnil, the family realized that they still owned the remnants of a large old Norman house standing amid many acres of orchard, woodland, and pasture. A Place in Normandy is a chronicle of renewed love and restoration, "subtly catching the rhythms of life and the flavor of an American family at ease in another culture" (Publishers Weekly).

 

What people are saying - Write a review

Reviews aren't verified, but Google checks for and removes fake content when it's identified

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - bnbookgirl - LibraryThing

I wanted to like this book more than I did. Parts of the books made me feel like I was walking the lanes of the French towns, but some of the book was a bit dry and boring. I enjoyed the photos of the ... Read full review

A PLACE IN NORMANDY

User Review  - Kirkus

Quaint, quirky, leisurely, and often confiningly parochial, this is a paean to the rambling farmhouse in Normandy that's been in his family since 1920 and that Kilmer can't resist trying to restore to ... Read full review

Selected pages

Other editions - View all

A Place in Normandy
Nicholas Kilmer
Limited preview - 1997
A Place in Normandy
Nicholas Kilmer
No preview available - 1997

Common terms and phrases

already American apple arrived asked bathroom become brought building called carrying cheese church cider closet collection coming continued cows dining room door downstairs drive driveway dumbwaiter eating English everything face farm father fields floor followed Frances French friends Frieseke garden going grandmother grandparents guests head heard hill inside inthe Julia keep kitchen knew least leaving light lived looked Margaret Mesnil Michigan morning mother moved needed never night Norman Normandy noticed ofthe once painting Paris pasture person Photo Pont l’Evêque pulled rabbit rain road running Ruth seemed side started stood summer Teddy tell Thérèse thing thought told took tothe town train trees turned upstairs Vera’s walked wall wanted washed window woods

About the author (2014)

Nicholas Kilmer is the author of Harmony in Flesh and Black, Man with a Squirrel, and O Sacred Head, the first three installments in the Fred Taylor mystery series, which take place in Boston's art world. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Bibliographic information

QR code for A Place in Normandy
TitleA Place in Normandy
AuthorNicholas Kilmer
PublisherHenry Holt and Company, 2014
ISBN1466871997, 9781466871991
Length272 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Travel / Europe / France
  
Export CitationBiBTeX EndNote RefMan