Lucy Beckett’s A Postcard from the Volcano: A Novel of Pre-War Germany (2009) is a great intellectual novel situated in a time of massive of geopolitical changes. Set in what was then Germany and is now Poland (mostly) between 1914 and 1939, young European intellectuals and artists—Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, some religious, some atheist, friends and sometimes lovers—wrestle with the great ideas in the light of real events which are impinging increasingly on their daily lives. In this talk, Rev. Dominic White, O.P., will be exploring how Lucy Beckett, former head of classics at Ampleforth College, brings together an intellectual feast with writing of profound compassion and humanity that unfolds the subtle and mysterious workings of divine grace. He will also look at how she positions the narrative voice as a kind of “revelator” and discuss the award-winning sequel, The Leaves Are Falling (2014), in which the creative possibilities of this “revelator” role are developed further.
This event is sponsored by the Future of the Humanities Project and the Georgetown Humanities Initiative at Georgetown University with Blackfriars Hall, Oxford. It is part of the series Cultural Encounters: Books that Have Made a Difference.
