The perceptive Hertmans has given voice not only to his grandfather but to an entire generation. **** – de Volkskrant

With War and Turpentine Stefan Hertmans has written one of the most moving books of the year. *****– de Standaard

I don’t want to give away all of this book’s secrets. But as Mr. Hertmans delves more deeply into his grandfather’s paintings, he finds things in them he did not expect to find. Some of these discoveries are very moving…. This serious and dignified book seems built to last. - Dwight Garner, New York Times



A book that seems to be aching to be called “Sebaldian” and earns the epithet glowlingly. War and Turpentine has all the markings of a future classic. – The Guardian


The novel is wonderful, full of astonishingly vivid moments of powerful imagery. (…) There are moving moments of mysterious beauty. (…) Hertmans brilliantly captures the intractable reality of a complex man.’ ‘ War and Turpentine has a quietly resonant personal epic quality that dwarfs all around it. **** – Sunday Times


A rich fictionalised memoir. (…) Death, destruction, obligation, duty… Urbain faces them all and yet he still finds joys in life. – Times


Hertmans demonstrates a painter’s eye for the smallest detail, gracefully melding art criticism and philosophy. Hertmans’s prose, with a deft translation from McKay, works with the same full palette as Urbain Martien’s paintings: vivid, passionate—and in the end, life-affirming. – Kirkus Reviews