{"product_id":"testimonies-9780393034837","title":"Testimonies","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1952  Delmore Schwartz  the most influential critic in postwar America  wrote of Patrick OBrians first novel  Testimonies: \"a triumph...drawn forward by lyric eloquence and the storys fascination  the reader discovers in the end that he has encountered in a new way the sphinx and the riddle of existence itself.\" Schwartzs imagination was fired by this sinister tale of love and death set in Wales  a timeless story with echoes of Thomas Hardy and Mary Webb. Joseph Pugh  sick of Oxford and of teaching  decides to take some time off to live in a wild and beautiful Welsh farm valley that seems at the other end of the earth from the life he has known at the great university. There he falls physically ill  and is nursed back to health by Bronwen Vaughn  the wife of a neighboring farmer. Although Bronwens husband Emyr is a successful farmer and a pillar of the community  there is a streak of sado-sexual violence in him that has ruined their marriage. Slowly  unwillingly  Bronwen and Pugh fall in love; and while that word is never spoken between them  their story is as passionate and as tragic as that of Vronsky and Anna Karenina. People  and Emyrs family in particular  begin to take note of the friendship between Bronwen and Pugh. The visit of a famous preacher punctures the boil of jealousies and suspicions in the small community  and the violence that follows comes almost as a relief. Readers who know OBrians story-telling from the Aubrey\/Maturin tales will find in this book confirmation of the great range and depth of his gifts as a novelist.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45529603473461,"sku":"ByrdShop_0393034836","price":67.44,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780393034837.jpg?v=1780938635","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/testimonies-9780393034837","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}