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Susan Fletcher
Susan Fletcher is the Assistant Deputy Minister of Health Canada.
Lass mich dir von einem Mann erzählen, den ich kannte
Lass mich dir von einem Mann erzählen, den ich kannte
- Pages
- 335
- Published
- 2016
- Language
- German
Synopsis
Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, 1889. Vincent van Gogh has been sent to the asylum of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole after his breakdown in Arles, and Jeanne Trabuc — in her fifties, married to the asylum's warden Charles — is under strict instruction to keep away from the patients. She climbs over the wall to watch him paint anyway.
The friendship that follows is not a romance so much as a reckoning. Van Gogh's restless, undiminished appetite for life and colour becomes a kind of mirror for Jeanne, whose own life was quietly narrowed down, decision by decision, from an adventurous girl into a warden's dutiful wife. The novel moves between Jeanne's present days at the asylum and flashbacks to her earlier life, tracing how she arrived at this point — and whether she still has room to change it.
Jeanne and Charles Trabuc were real people, both painted by van Gogh during his time at Saint-Rémy; Fletcher builds a fully imagined interior life around the historical record.
Genres
Characters
Jeanne TrabucProtagonist
Wife of the asylum's warden; narrates her friendship with van Gogh and her own past.
Charles TrabucSupporting
Jeanne's husband, warden of the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum.
Vincent van GoghSupporting
Patient at the asylum; his friendship with Jeanne is the novel's centre.
Frequently asked questions
Are the characters in this book based on real people?
The central figures of Jeanne and Charles Trabuc were real individuals who lived and worked at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum during the time Vincent van Gogh was a patient there. Susan Fletcher drew inspiration for the narrative from the historical letters exchanged between Vincent and his brother Theo.
Does this book focus primarily on the life of Vincent van Gogh?
While the artist is a pivotal presence, the narrative is intentionally centered on the internal life and personal awakening of Jeanne Trabuc. The author uses the artist's arrival as a catalyst for Jeanne to re-examine her own marriage and the limitations of her daily existence.