Painter of Silence

Nov 24, 2012 Shomeret rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: around-the-world, historical-fiction, my-reviews

I read this book because I am interested in deaf protagonists, but I consider The Painter of Silence a failure in portraying a deaf character. I don't think the author thought through how Augustin communicates. Images can be subjective, and weren't always a reliable means of communication for him. So it's not sufficient to say that he communicates through drawings and paintings. Safta is supposed to be able to communicate with him by other means, and it's never really specified how she does it....more

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Nov 11, 2012 Beth rated it 4 of 5 stars

There is a sense that Georgina Harding’s novel Painter of Silence is whispering some essential pieces of wisdom that require all of our attention to absorb. Maybe it is just because Harding’s character Augustin is deaf and mute, interacts with the world in every way but sound. Even without voice, though, Augustin has a story to tell and, while terrified, he is also determined to tell it, particularly to the one person he thinks might ‘hear’ it. She is Safta, the little girl of his childhood who,...more

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Nov 28, 2012 Chrissie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: hf, romania, audio, medical, art

I am not quite sure why I so very much enjoyed this book, but I know I did. It is a quiet book, with beautiful language that keeps you thinking. No splashy action filled drama. There are two main characters, one, a deaf mute, and the other his friend, a girl. They are born six months apart. They are born in the same house. Thus they have grown up together, but one was born to the cook and the other to the family of the manor. It is about their relationship. This is not a love story between these...more I am not quite sure why I so very much enjoyed this book, but I know I did. It is a quiet book, with beautiful language that keeps you thinking. No splashy action filled drama. There are two main characters, one, a deaf mute, and the other his friend, a girl. They are born six months apart. They are born in the same house. Thus they have grown up together, but one was born to the cook and the other to the family of the manor. It is about their relationship. This is not a love story between these two. Neither is the book about being a deaf-mute, the boy born to the cook. But it is about communication, how we relate to each other, how it is our attitudes toward one another that dictates if communication can ever be possible. If you want to understand another, then you will understand. These two lives touch each other; they bump up against each other. Again and again. And the reader learns about both lives. You learn about one family living in Romania, before during and after World War Two, primarily through these two individuals.

And there is another theme that is wonderfully explored. Art. The deaf mute communicates through his art. Isn't all art a means to communication? I fell in love with the art that Augustin made. I saw his art work. Fabulous art. I wish it really existed. By reading this book it does exist for me.

The writing is special. Soft and gentle. You see, the communication between Safta and Augustin is not verbal. Augustin cannot hear. We are given only their thoughts. These thoughts are communicated without sound. They are communicated by looking at each other. This I love because I think so much is said by looking at another person. You see what a person is saying by how they move their body. I felt I was watching these two people rather than listening to their words. And often words lie, while people's actions reveal who they really are. I am not being very clear; the book conjures an atmosphere of honest communication without words. The woman who narrates the audiobook, Siân Thomas, carries this off without one single fault. Calmly we are given the thoughts of both Safta and Augustin. Occasionally another voice is heard and immediately you here a different tone. Tremendous narration. Through Thomas' voice and the author's words you feel you understand how Augustin experiences a silent world.

I have tried to pinpoint why I love this book.

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After 15 of 35 chapters:
Beautiful lines, enhanced by the voice of the audiobook narrator: Siân Thomas. It is about our inner selves and who we are. It is about love relationships. It is about art. Really not about being a deaf mute at all.

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Hmmm, another author compared to Michael Ondaatje. From the beginning, the writing has a special feel; it is smooth and soft. Yes, even lyrical, although I think that adjective is employed all too often!

I am so intrigued with the writing that I have already added another by the same author: The Solitude of Thomas Cave (less)

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May 02, 2013 Kathleen Hagen added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013-audio

Painter of Silence, by Georgina Harding, Narrated by Sian Thomas, Produced by Audiogo, Downloaded from audible.com.

Romania, the early 1950s. A man with no identification is found on the steps of a hospital. Deaf and with no speechavailable to him, d is unable to communicate until a young nurse called Safta recognizes him and that he is deaf. She knows that he has the ability to draw pictures that describe what he sees or remembers, and she knows he can write some words. She brings paper and penc...more

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Nov 27, 2012 Bonny rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: cultural-biography, cultures, families, historical-fiction, paperback, relationships

This is one of a few books I bought this past summer while visiting Edinburgh. I had never read anything by Georgina Harding before. What a wonderful storyteller! I couldn't put this book away from me and read it every spare moment I had. On coffeebreaks, riding the bus and late into the night.

It brings to life the story of a deafmute and his experiences growing up. Then his survival during the war as the Russians invade his homeland. His captivity and after the war his search ffor the girl he k...more

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Nov 01, 2012 Ernie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Harding is a new writer to me and I am impressed with her evocation of that lost rural life encapsulated by that European summer of 1939, not in the England of Brideshead Revisited but on a rural estate in Romania. Here the master is an Anglophile who sends his sons to England for an education and his daughter Esta to Paris. The sons escape the war but Esta, after severe personal conflict refuses to accompany either her lover or the rest of the family when they leave, as she has broken with fami...more Harding is a new writer to me and I am impressed with her evocation of that lost rural life encapsulated by that European summer of 1939, not in the England of Brideshead Revisited but on a rural estate in Romania. Here the master is an Anglophile who sends his sons to England for an education and his daughter Esta to Paris. The sons escape the war but Esta, after severe personal conflict refuses to accompany either her lover or the rest of the family when they leave, as she has broken with family traditions and trained as a nurse and feels that her place is to remain in Bucharest.
When earlier, the cook had a child, his deafness went undiagnosed so he remained mute although he was educated with Esta and the other children by the governess in the attic of the wooden villa until she gave up and left him to his compulsive drawing and his love of working with the horses. His name Augustin remains a constant reminder of that summer August as Harding describes his detailed drawings as his only means of communication.
Esta was the first to notice his artistic talent and they remain close for the rest of the novel which moves in time through the war and the communist revolution in Romania but holding these events to remote memories. Accordingly, this is a gently told story using several points of view, focusing on Esta’s devotion to Augustin and using his drawing to place the horrors of war and the communist state at a considerable remove, as if to acknowledge that words would be impossible to convey the losses that the characters suffered. When after the war and the famine Esta finds him, aged and emaciated and without papers in her Bucharest hospital, there is a different kind of fear that causes her to pass him off as the son of her room mate. The mystery of what happened to Augustin and her lover Andrei during the war is intriguingly revealed in the drawings. Harding achieves that gentle pace of narration and the pastoral calm without longeurs by driving the narrative interest through the force of her characterisation. Not much happens in the present and the past is mediated through memories and the word descriptions of the mostly black and white pencil drawings. I highly recommend this fascinating story that would be quite accessible for students in years 11 and 12.
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Aug 02, 2012 Sam rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: lovers of slow, but beautiful books

Recommended to Sam by: Orange Prize shortlist/publisher

Painter of Silence has been floating around the edges of my radar for some time – I’d read some good reviews on blogs, then it was listed for this year’s Orange Prize. Then thanks to the lovely people at Bloomsbury, I received a review copy. And now I’ve read it and I feel guilty. Why? Because this book should have been on the centre of my radar – it’s one of those books that you thoroughly enjoy, then curse yourself for not reading the instant it landed in your hands.

Painter of Silence has a ge...more Painter of Silence has been floating around the edges of my radar for some time – I’d read some good reviews on blogs, then it was listed for this year’s Orange Prize. Then thanks to the lovely people at Bloomsbury, I received a review copy. And now I’ve read it and I feel guilty. Why? Because this book should have been on the centre of my radar – it’s one of those books that you thoroughly enjoy, then curse yourself for not reading the instant it landed in your hands.

Painter of Silence has a gentle tone that builds and sways until you become completely enthralled with it. It does take a little while to get into – sorting out exactly who the characters are, the different time periods (before and after the second World War) and where they fit in relation to each other. You’ll find that everything does fit perfectly and each character and their actions have a reason.

The novel brings together two disparate characters – a mute, deaf homeless man who is brought into a hospital suffering from what sounds like a respiratory infection (possibly TB, I like to try to diagnose my characters) and a nurse from another ward who shows him kindness. These two people are the main characters – Augustin (Tinu) and Safta. They grew up together, Safta in the big house and Tinu as the child of one of the workers. Tinu was born deaf (Safta born to make noise) but they complement each other. Tinu has come to the city to tell Safta something she needs to know. By chance, Safta hears of the mute man and comes to see that it is Tinu. She gives him some paper and pencils and he begins to do what he has always done – draw.

Through Tinu’s drawings and flashbacks to their childhoods, we begin to see how this pair and their families have been damaged during the war and the subsequent change in politics within Romania to a communist state. Harding paints exquisite pictures, making the simple sound beautiful and extraordinary. The writing is out of this world – it’s lyrical, vivid and gives the whole novel a sort of nostalgia that’s not tainted by time. Harding also gets deeply into the minds of her characters – Safta, frustrated at the turn of events that changed her life, and Tinu, whose life the war tears apart. The supporting characters are endearing (particularly the nurse Adriana, who looks after Tinu in the hospital and eventually takes him home, naming him Ioan after her dead son).

I found this book beautiful and I’ll definitely read more by this author.

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Feb 14, 2013 Andre Yeo rated it 5 of 5 stars

Georgina Harding does a wonderful job of storytelling with such elegance through the use of simple prose. From her mastery of the language, I found it rather easy to immerse myself into the protagonist's ( whose name is also known as Augustin) life. He comes off as slightly detached from reality, living in the sandcastles of his mind, but it isn't true. Years of living with his affliction; of being deaf and practically mute, has hardened him and hence the facade of cool detached indifference.

Au...more

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Jul 15, 2012 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A small fable of life just before, then a good bit after, the war, in Romania. Some lovely (if not exceptional) writing and a good sense of place on an estate - and a bit less so in Iasi afterwards. There is a nice range of village characters but all are rather thin, including the two principles (the boy is treated like an idiot savant) and the story, despite the inevitable richness (and horror) of wartime, is also a bit sparse. It wraps up exceedingly tidily and the interesting angle on the loo...more

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May 17, 2012 Sophia rated it 3 of 5 stars

Painter of Silence is set in Romania before, during and after the second world war. The book's present follows Augustin, a deaf mute who is found, undernourished and seriously ill, on the steps of Bucharest's hospital. He is nursed back to health by Safta, a nurse who knew him when they were children growing up in a small rural village. She cares for Augustin, and arranges a place for him to go to when he is eventually released from hospital.

We also learn of Safta and Augustin's childhood. Safta...more Painter of Silence is set in Romania before, during and after the second world war. The book's present follows Augustin, a deaf mute who is found, undernourished and seriously ill, on the steps of Bucharest's hospital. He is nursed back to health by Safta, a nurse who knew him when they were children growing up in a small rural village. She cares for Augustin, and arranges a place for him to go to when he is eventually released from hospital.

We also learn of Safta and Augustin's childhood. Safta was the daughter of the local squire and grew up on a large estate. Augustin was the son of their cook, but the two children were close in age and formed a special relationship.

The central idea behind the story is Augustin's detachment from the rest of the world. He is a talented artist, and uses pictures to make sense of the world around him, but he is very withdrawn and makes little attempt to communicate with friends and family. He will experience extreme hardship and the events of the war and later Soviet occupation will affect him profoundly.

There is a palpable melancholy in the writing, and a detachment that mirrors Augustin's own. Things move extremely slowly and I have to admit I did get a little bored, particularly during the first half. It improves towards the end, when we find out exactly what Augustin has suffered in the years he spent away from Safta, but even here the reader is set at a distance and I found it hard to get emotionally involved.

If only there had been a little more going on, perhaps an interesting twist or at least a little more involvement with our characters, this could have been a great book. More of Augustin's thoughts would have helped; these passages were interesting but too few to really give the reader a sense of who he was. And Safta is another mystery; we never really understand how she feels about anything. The end of the book was quite surprising, but again it lacked punch or something that might make it memorable.

I liked Painter of Silence for the mood it created, but it didn't have the wow factor I was hoping for in an Orange shortlisted novel.(less)

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Jan 13, 2013 Joop Liefaard rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels

Voor de ingang van een ziekenhuis in de Roemeense stad Iasi vindt een verpleegster een verwarde en ernstig zieke man. Niemand weet wie hij is. Na een paar dagen komen artsen tot de conclusie dat de man doofstom is. De jonge verpleegster Safta meent de man te herkennen als Augustin, de zoon van de kokkin die op het landgoed werkte waar zij is geboren en opgegegroeid. Zij noemde de doofstomme jongen toen Tinu. Zij geeft hem papier en potloden en Augustin begint door middel van tekeningen en later...more Voor de ingang van een ziekenhuis in de Roemeense stad Iasi vindt een verpleegster een verwarde en ernstig zieke man. Niemand weet wie hij is. Na een paar dagen komen artsen tot de conclusie dat de man doofstom is. De jonge verpleegster Safta meent de man te herkennen als Augustin, de zoon van de kokkin die op het landgoed werkte waar zij is geboren en opgegegroeid. Zij noemde de doofstomme jongen toen Tinu. Zij geeft hem papier en potloden en Augustin begint door middel van tekeningen en later schilderijen zijn verhaal te vertellen. Het is voor hem de enige manier om met zijn omgeving te kunnen communiceren.

Het verhaal speelt zich af in Roemenië in de jaren vijftig van de vorige eeuw. De Tweede Wereldoorlog is voorbij en het communisme begint het leven in Roemenië te beheersen. De plotselinge veranderingen hebben grote invloed op de levens van Augustin en Safta. Het is een overgang van een bijna feodaal tijdperk waarin de levens van mensen zich volgens vaststaande patronen voltrok en iedereen binnen dit kader wist waar hij aan toe was, naar een tijdperk waarin onderdrukking, onvrijheid en angst het leven van alledag bepalen.

Hoe volkomen moet de duisternis zijn, als een dove man zijn ogen sluit. Dit is een van de mooie zinnen die in het boek Schilder van stilte van de Engelse schrijfster Georgina Harding voorkomen. De schrijfstijl is prachtig. In schitterend proza beschrijft zij de karakters van de hoofdpersonen en de omgeving en plaatsen waar het verhaal zich afspeelt. Dit gebeurt zo beeldend dat je als lezer het gevoel krijgt onderdeel te zijn van het verhaal, een toeschouwer die er aan deelneemt. Het lijkt alsof je over de schouders van Augustin meekijkt als hij zijn wereld en zijn verhaal met alle ontroerende en soms gruwelijke details tekent en schildert. Zo mooi als Augustin schildert met papier, penseel en potlood, zo mooi schildert Georgina Harding met woorden.

Georgina Harding, die op mij al eerder grote indruk maakte met het boek De eenzaamheid van Thomas Cave, heeft met Schilder van stilte opnieuw een juweeltje geschreven. Een prachtig verhaal, bedacht met het hoofd en op papier gezet met het hart.
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Aug 12, 2012 Brittany Rehage rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Painter of Silence had me intrigued from the first moment I read the description. I just knew it was going to be a book that slowly made my heart ache and twist, but it would be done so beautifully, I'd have no choice but to keep reading, knowing there may not be that perfect, happy ending.

The descriptions in this book are gorgeous. Harding paints the world in such a way that I could picture everything, down to the smallest detail. Usually books that are written that wonderfully fail to have a g...more

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Dec 27, 2012 David Cheshire rated it 3 of 5 stars

Other reviewers have praised the "slow burn" of this novel. The story and setting are unusual. The ending is unexpected and satisfying. But for me what makes the novel is the central character, a deaf mute. He acts as a powerful device; other characters say things to him they would not say to anyone who was able to hear them, nor even to themselves. He does not experience events as we do. No connections are made between them; there is no sense of time and this results in one shocking, climatic m...more

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May 10, 2012 Bree T rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, shortlisted-orange-prize-2012, post-ww2, romania

In Romania after the Second World War, a man is found on the steps of a hospital, frail and very ill. He is taken in and treated as best the nurses can without having the funds to buy the expensive drugs he needs to get better. One nurse in particular takes a shining to him, talking to him softly as she looks after him. Because the man hasn’t spoken, they don’t know anything about him – his name, his age, where he comes from. This nurse, Adriana names him Ioan, after her son who hasn’t come back...more In Romania after the Second World War, a man is found on the steps of a hospital, frail and very ill. He is taken in and treated as best the nurses can without having the funds to buy the expensive drugs he needs to get better. One nurse in particular takes a shining to him, talking to him softly as she looks after him. Because the man hasn’t spoken, they don’t know anything about him – his name, his age, where he comes from. This nurse, Adriana names him Ioan, after her son who hasn’t come back from the war.

Another nurse, Safta is the first to acknowledge that he is both deaf and mute. She brings him paper and pencils so that he may draw, tell them about himself and what he has been through by showing them and give them the information they need. What Adriana doesn’t know and what Safta doesn’t admit to is that she knows him – has always known him. He has been a part of her life for as long as she can remember, the son of a peasant girl who helped out in the household she grew up in. He was always included and he has always been able to draw.

He doesn’t touch the pencils and paper at first but slowly he moves to begin his tale, drawing houses and stables, horses and a car, beautiful Romanian countryside. Safta left the home before the war and its soldiers swept through, but he stayed. He saw things, things which he outlines on paper, painting a picture for Safta that’s worth a thousand words. She senses some urgency in some of the drawings and she knows that he is trying to explain something to her, something specific that he desperately wants her to know.

It is becoming too dangerous for him to stay within the city – people are curious and they know he isn’t Adriana’s son come back from the war. Safta decides she must take him back, even though it will be dangerous for her to go back there. And along the way, he will tell her his story.

Painter Of Silence is one of those books that I found just worked for me. Sometimes you can’t explain a reaction that you’ll have to a book and I think this might be one of those times. It’s beautifully written, Harding manages to convey so much through the eyes of Augustin/Ioan, our deaf and mute character. We begin with his train arriving in the city where he is seeking someone, only her name written on a piece of paper and where she works. He has never been to a city before, in fact he hasn’t been many places at all in his life. He is ill, he cannot ask for help or where to go and he has no where to stay until he can find who he is searching for. When he collapses, he is lucky that it is outside the hospital, both for the help it means he will receive and the fact that he has found who he has been searching for.

The reader is then taken back to his and Safta’s childhood – his birth, the realisation that he cannot speak or hear, the attempts to educate him nonetheless and the idea of having him convey his expressions through drawing. There is a bond between him and the other children, particularly Safta, despite the divide of their class. He is a silent observer, not always understanding what it is that he is witnessing. His childhood is content, he is well taken care of, people take an interest with him. But that all changes once the family vacate the house when the war is coming.

From then on, his world is different, it is a darker place and unlike most people, there’s no one he can talk to for comfort. Most of the time he doesn’t even understand why what is happening around him, is even happening at all. He witnesses shocking events, he deals with things alone, sometimes in a way that breaks your heart.

This book is just so vivid – I could imagine myself there, even though I have no idea what Romanian countryside looks like. Through his eyes, the scenes came alive – the house, the stables, the rolling fields, the distant hills. The family dynamics and relationships were told through the eyes of an innocent stable boy, the son of a peasant woman. He gains such simple pleasures from things like taking a trip in the family car and working with the horses. He has something of a ‘gift’ with them.

The characters in this book are just so unbelievably real, from the nurse Adriana, who waits patiently for the return of her son from where he was fighting. She’s on her own now, living in one room in someone else’s house after houses were taken and carved up after the war. She adopts Augustin/Ioan out of kindness and also a desperation in that if she can’t have her son, she can perhaps have this young man who has no one… There’s Safta, a young girl who knew the privilege of being well off and having a comfortable life but that didn’t stop her experiencing teenage heartbreak and then the loss of her family home and the fracturing of her family. There are other characters that come and go, peppering the story with realism.

This is a story that will stick with you, the writing is so lovely and lyrical, beautiful passages that linger in your mind long after you’ve finished the book. It’s an impressive story, one of love, loss, hope and a war that penetrated deep into the countryside.(less)

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Jul 05, 2012 Joanne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Yet another good book from this year's Orange Prize shortlist. Painter of Silence tells the story of Augustin (Tinu), a deaf mute, who lives in Romania before, during and after the second World War. The novel begins when he arrives in Iasi after the war, desperately ill and concerned with only one thing - finding Safta, who is working as a nurse at the hospital, and delivering a message to her. As a deaf mute, his only method of communication is through his pictures, and it is via his drawings a...more

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May 28, 2012 Sam rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, europe, eastern-europe, library, literary-fiction, orange-prize, war

Painter of Silence is the story of Augustin, a deaf and mute man who is found on the hospital steps of Iasi, Romania. Through a connection with one of the nurses, Safta, the story of their shared childhood and war experiences slowly unfold, all told through art and silence. The idyllic world of their childhood has been forever changed by war and a brutal new Communist regime.

Painter of Silence is the first shortlisted book to disappoint me. I went into it expecting a treat as generally I enjoy t...more Painter of Silence is the story of Augustin, a deaf and mute man who is found on the hospital steps of Iasi, Romania. Through a connection with one of the nurses, Safta, the story of their shared childhood and war experiences slowly unfold, all told through art and silence. The idyllic world of their childhood has been forever changed by war and a brutal new Communist regime.

Painter of Silence is the first shortlisted book to disappoint me. I went into it expecting a treat as generally I enjoy these human stories set in war and Eastern Europe. But from the first few pages I was disappointed with the story and Harding completely failed to engage me. At certain points in the book, I was bored and just hoping for it to end.

I think there are a few reasons I felt this way about the book:
*The lack of a clear feel for the setting - Harding told me this book was set in Romania before and after the second world war, but I would never have known otherwise. The country house with servants could have been practically anywhere and I didn't get a feel for Romania as distinct from any other country, there was nothing about Painter of Silence that transported me to another time or place.
*Augustin himself - Maybe it's brave picking a deaf-mute as a central character and Harding did show the power of silence, but at times this felt like a convenient way of not addressing issues to do with the war - Augustin wouldn't have picked up on it so Harding didn't have to write about it.
*The lack of terror associated with the new Communist state - The best books set in this time period have a sense of the all-pervading fear that often went along with Communist regimes (Sofi Oksanen's Purge is a great example). This was absent in Painter of Silence; yes, people had to move home and Safta had to become a nurse, but there was too much emotional detachment for there to be any power in this.

So it's safe to say I had quite a few issues with this book. At certain points I even became angry with it as it seemed like such a cliche of literary award winning writing (pick a war zone, choose a character with a unique perspective, offer some analysis of art and hey presto, you've won!). But what saved the book to some degree was the writing itself. I may have had issues with the story and characters, but the writing was simply stunning, quiet but powerful. I have no doubt that Harding is a talented writer but Painter of Silence was definitely not a book for me.
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May 10, 2012 Patrick rated it 2 of 5 stars

I can only imagine that the editor who described this book as being 'as intense and submerging as rain' was being a bit too clever for their own good, because it really is about as immersive as a light shower. I didn't dislike it, but I didn't enjoy it much either. The writing is fine, but there were no parts I felt like marking out as especially significant or beautiful. And that's the problem; the whole book is dominated by this odd sense of flatness that make it quite dull to read.

The novel...more I can only imagine that the editor who described this book as being 'as intense and submerging as rain' was being a bit too clever for their own good, because it really is about as immersive as a light shower. I didn't dislike it, but I didn't enjoy it much either. The writing is fine, but there were no parts I felt like marking out as especially significant or beautiful. And that's the problem; the whole book is dominated by this odd sense of flatness that make it quite dull to read.

The novel revolves around the life of Augustin, a boy who is born deaf in early twentieth-century Romania, not long before the Second World War. He lives with a relatively wealthy family in a big country house, but his inability to hear means that he is sidelined, partly by accident and partly by design: he never learns to talk, to read or write, or to communicate in any definable way. But he does learn to draw, and though he never really becomes known as an artist, his drawings and little sculptures become a way of understanding the experiences of his past through work in the present.

All of this is fine as a conceit. But never once did I feel like Augustin had the kind of special kind of artistic insight that the book insists he must have. Too often the author takes an overly literal approach to his art; he's plonked down in a location, there's a couple of paragraphs of pretty but workmanlike description of what he drew, and we're expected to extrapolate from this...what? That art is good and here are some things that are beautiful and this poor boy who cannot hear and the bad soviets want to repress him but he understands -- what? What? It's just not enough.

And this same weird sense of insufficiency extends to pretty much everything else about the book. The other characters are hardly there; Adriana and Safta are basically interchangeable; nobody changes, nobody develops; the whole book is plagued by a peculiarly English sense of paralysis (and not in a good way). It's a pre-war country house novel transplanted to a guidebook version of foreign climes. You never get the sense of this book truly existing in Romanian culture, and if I wanted to be really cruel I'd go so far as to suggest that Augustin's deafness is an excuse for the author not to involve themselves with that, preferring instead just to look on and describe another silent sequence of pleasant farmyards and/or horrible concentration camps. Such is light and shade in modern literature.

It's the third book I've read as part of my attempt to read the shortlist for the 2012 Orange Prize, and it was easily the most disappointing so far; I didn't like 'The Song of Achilles' much, but at least it had a rollicking plot and might be pleasing to fans of the genre. But this is just hopelessly dull. It's tempting to see its nomination as another result of a compromise decision between the judges: it's a not-unpleasant book, and will probably do well as an unchallenging and somewhat anaemic read for the poolside this summer, but it's surely nothing like the best book published in the last year. (less)

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Nov 24, 2012 Tessa rated it 5 of 5 stars

Georgina Harding takes a classic device of the dumb all seeing character to portray what happens in war, Tinu, Augustine and Elizabeth who during childhood function as brother and sister, she the daughter of the master of the house and he the son of the servant in a Romanian village before and during World War Two. Augustine communicates via drawing and by constructing models of places, people and situations to explain the world to himself. The war destroys their village and in their separate jo...more

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Aug 21, 2012 Estelle rated it 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this story of post WW2 Romania. Georgina Harding writes well and the subject matter was interesting. The return by Augustin and Safta to the deserted house with its memories of previous brilliance was very evocative. Is there a film with a similar theme? Dr Zhivago? The sense of the dominant Communist state in the back ground was also cleverly portrayed. If there had been any actual brutality it would have been much less effective.

Yet at times I found the story intolerably slow. So li...more I enjoyed this story of post WW2 Romania. Georgina Harding writes well and the subject matter was interesting. The return by Augustin and Safta to the deserted house with its memories of previous brilliance was very evocative. Is there a film with a similar theme? Dr Zhivago? The sense of the dominant Communist state in the back ground was also cleverly portrayed. If there had been any actual brutality it would have been much less effective.

Yet at times I found the story intolerably slow. So little actually happens and there is such a lot about the drawings! When highly charged events do take place they aren’t treated with any greater urgency than a description of one of Augustin’s pictures. Examples would be, the death of Andrei or Safta’s pregnancy. We learn very little about how she feels about these happenings.

It’s hard to empathize with any of the characters. Augustin is a deaf mute and so the narrator struggles to give him a convincing voice when we know that he does not communicate with words. Perhaps some of his pictures should have been included. I warmed to Adriana, the mother who loses her son. Yet even some of the plot which surrounds her is undeveloped. An example would be when the neighbours tell the authorities about Augustin living in Adriana’s room. It wasn’t clear to me first, why the man informed and second, if it was acceptable for Adriana to say to the authorities that Augustin was from the hospital, why she hadn’t told her neighbours that that was who he was in the first place?

It was also a little convenient for the father to turn up at the end when he did!

I have read some of the other comments and this struck a chord: The writing is fine, but there were no parts I felt like marking out as especially significant or beautiful. And that's the problem; the whole book is dominated by this odd sense of flatness that make it quite dull to read.

I wouldn’t say the writing was dull but do agree with the comment about flatness. But I suppose that fits very well with the drab and the dull and the secretive of a Communist state.
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Feb 01, 2013 Linda rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book just misses the mark of being great. It was shortlisted for a prize for fiction last year and the writer is amazing, but the story is so dark and intense that it needs more light. I was frustrated by the deaf mute and at times wanted to scream at him, which means I was really drawn into the story, but it took almost 200 pages for me to feel he was real. He expressed himself through drawing, but even that didn't convince me that he was connected to any of the other characters. The story...more

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May 11, 2012 Aaron (Typographical Era) rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, nook

Most of the first two-thirds of Georgina Harding’s third novel Painter of Silence seem to be a test with regards to just how much boredom a reader will endure before giving up and moving on to the next book. Only three major characters are fleshed out, nothing of note really happens to them, and the story that ties everything together hinges primarily on a protagonist named Augustin who can’t speak or hear, but can express himself solely by way of his supposedly evocative drawings. The problem i...more

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Nov 21, 2012 Karen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I found this a delightful book. It is beautifully written and runs at a gentle pace. The story unfolds simply and although there is a lot that is implied and not given in detail it is easy to take the writing and let your imagination draw the people and the places and the times and the relationships between them all. It is a story set during a difficult, tumultuous period of the history of eastern Europe and yet the underlying humanity and hope remain. It is really a story about being lost and f...more

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Jun 27, 2012 Nancy Oakes rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, uk-fiction

Starswise, closer to 3.5 stars than 4. But it's still a good read.

While Painter of Silence may not be the best work of historical fiction I've ever read, it's certainly good and is told from a rather unique perspective. It was also shortlisted for the Orange Prize this year.

As Painter of Silence opens, a young man makes his way to a hospital in the city of Iasi, in Moldavia (Romania) where he collapses on the stairs outside of the building. He is found, brought in and brought back from the edge...more Starswise, closer to 3.5 stars than 4. But it's still a good read.

While Painter of Silence may not be the best work of historical fiction I've ever read, it's certainly good and is told from a rather unique perspective. It was also shortlisted for the Orange Prize this year.

As Painter of Silence opens, a young man makes his way to a hospital in the city of Iasi, in Moldavia (Romania) where he collapses on the stairs outside of the building. He is found, brought in and brought back from the edge of death. Adriana, the nurse who takes a special interest in him, tries to find out who he is and where he may be from, but can elicit no information, finally realizing that he's probably deaf and most likely mute. She decides to call him by the name of her son, who went to fight in the war and never returned. Another nurse, Safta offers to help; she doesn't tell anyone, but she recognizes the man as Augustin, nicknamed Tinu, her childhood companion and son of her privileged family's former cook. She doesn't know it, but Augustin has struggled to make his way to Iasi to deliver a special message to her. After he is released from the hospital and stays briefly with Adriana, he and Safta embark on a journey back to their childhood home, where he begins to tell her his story and deliver her message in the only way he knows how -- through drawings done from his incredible memory that try to express what he's been through since he last saw her. As his story is slowly revealed, Augustin's pictures reflect the war's horrors and express the changes as the new Stalinist regime clears out the existing social order and imposes a new one. Tinu is not only a witness to events of this time period; he also experiences some of them firsthand. Safta's story is also revealed as the novel alternates between the present and the past.

Sometimes historical fiction authors feel like they have to include a lot of details, sensationalistic scenes of atrocities, or bloody battles that often hold the story down, but not here. Instead, the novel moves at a slow and gentle pace, condensing this timewise-small but critical period of Romania's upheaval into a very readable and potent narrative. Augustin's experiences, his observations and his incredible memory carry the historical events without the need for extraneous additions. The author effectively establishes a running theme of separation/disconnection/isolation throughout the novel: as Safta notes, disconnecting is what "she and everyone else is meant to be doing these days" under this new order. Parents are separated from their children; the fear that pervades this new society detaches previously morally-sound people from who they used to be and their principles and leaves them afraid to speak. Present is separated from past. A refugee mentally and physically separates herself from the people who have taken her in. "Pieces of one's mind" separate, then come back together in "unexpected ways." And then of course there's Tinu, who's always stood apart because of his inability to speak or hear.

Painter of Silence started out a bit slow in getting my full attention, but it eventually started to hook me as I continued to read and got used to the pace and the writing style. It's very reader friendly and accessible, not bogged down in useless detail, and a good novel of historical fiction that is related from a different perspective than I've experienced before. While the main character, Tinu, is drawn well, there is also a lot of strength in some of the minor characters -- the brief scenes with Liviu and Irina Milescu, for example, who live in Adriana's building, offer a realistic look at ordinary people caught up in extraordinary circumstances. The book tends to raise some interesting questions about the nature of language but I'll leave that topic for more critically-oriented people than myself. What I didn't really like so much was the ending -- I get that the author has left things on a note of hope, but it was a bit unrealistic, seemed contrived and sort of threw a damper on my overall enjoyment of the novel. But I can still definitely recommend the book. (less)

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Jun 08, 2012 Essie Fox rated it 4 of 5 stars

Contains Spoilers.

Painter of Silence is a beautifully written book, the imagery like a painting, full of muted colour and light and an essence of ‘quiet stillness’ as the novel deals with fundamental themes of friendship and love, loss and tragedy.

The setting is Romania, spanning a period between the 1930’s and the 1950’s. The novel opens up following the end of the second-world war when both country and town have been ravaged; everything a bleak, grey and monotone, in the centre of which is a h...more Contains Spoilers.

Painter of Silence is a beautifully written book, the imagery like a painting, full of muted colour and light and an essence of ‘quiet stillness’ as the novel deals with fundamental themes of friendship and love, loss and tragedy.

The setting is Romania, spanning a period between the 1930’s and the 1950’s. The novel opens up following the end of the second-world war when both country and town have been ravaged; everything a bleak, grey and monotone, in the centre of which is a hospital – a bleached white ship of tranquility.

One of its inmates is Augustin, a desperately ill and frail young man, unable to communicate because he is both deaf and dumb. However, it soon becomes apparent that one of the nurses, a young woman by the name of Safta, knows exactly who Augustin is and – through her reflections of the past - we view how their relationship began.

We also see their childhood through the silence of Augustin’s mind – in the only way he can express himself – which is through his unique talent for art, always drawing and painting obsessively,the images he creates on the page being his only language:a means of trying to translate to others what it is he sees and feels, thus creating some logical pattern or sense in his isolation.

Due to his disability Augustin cannot go to school and is further alienated by the fact of his illegitimacy – with his mother the cook in a large country manor who has raised her child with no father around.

Safta – the adult who now works as a nurse – was once a privileged wealthy child in the family that owned that house; a house where rooms opened into each other, with a balcony running the breadth of the back, and with gardens designed in the English style, with lavender hedges and swathes of lawns. In such a tranquil idyll she befriended the mute Augustin, looking at his pictures or visiting the stables where he worked with the horses, having such a special way of silently communicating with animals.

There is a wonderful scene where the two children are on the brink of puberty, when they sit secretly in the hay loft with Augustin’s attention and gaze so engrossed and intent on Safta’s face, with nothing else existing for him in that one silent moment, whereas she is continually distracted...by the sound of workmen out in the yard, or a car as travels up the drive...

A car eventually arrives that brings with it a family friend, a handsome young man on a visit from Paris. From that point on Augustin observes from afar as Safta embarks on an affair that plays out through one sultry hot summer – with Augustin only able to understand by creating two puppet people, holding them close as if to kiss – as if trying to comprehend what he’s seen – and what he knows is lost to him.

But, there will be loss for everyone. The dark night of war is drawing near, and not only does Safta’s lover leave but her family will be dispossessed; their whole way of life destroyed. And, over the following years, while Augustin remains at the house bearing witness to terrible, tragic events, he will also learn something about Safta’s lover, something important for her to know – if only he can find her and try to make her understand the message hidden in his art – something so intensely moving, I guarantee it will break your heart.
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Sep 13, 2012 Alice Jane rated it 4 of 5 stars

Full review on my blog: Crazy Red Pen

Painter of Silence, is less about art itself than it is about life. It’s the end of the war, in late 1940’s and a nurse, cares for a mysterious young man who’s deaf and mute and without a background. She tells him her thoughts and secrets, more for her sake than the young man’s. After all, he can’t hear her. The urse names him Ioan, a harmless name, she thinks.

Another nurse, Safta, knows the young man’s real name isn’t Ioan. She knows because she’s known the...more

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May 17, 2012 Tanya Lolonis rated it 5 of 5 stars

Evocative, gentle prose which drew me in. The story, set in Romania before and after the Second World War, is essentially about adjusting to lost worlds -- country aristocracy before the war and the Communist take-over destruction or appropriation of their physical world afterwards; lingering over the past and living in the moment; survival, and the friends and enemies that emerge, out of nowhere. It is about a deaf-mute young man who can only communicate -- and imperfectly -- with drawings, and...more

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May 31, 2012 1morechapter rated it 4 of 5 stars

4.5 stars

“We’re all so many people, aren’t we, nowadays? So confusing it is, I don’t know how anyone keeps track. There are the people we are inside, then the people we used to be, then there are the people other people think we are.”

2012 Orange Prize Shortlist

Painter of Silence is a book that easily could have won the Orange Prize, and I’m somewhat surprised that it didn’t. I purchased my copy from The Book Depository, as unfortunately, it won’t be published in the States until September.

Set in...more

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May 14, 2012 Michelle rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: my sister and anyone who likes intelligent romance novels

Recommended to Michelle by: Orange Prize 2012

Shelves: orange-2012

Painter of Silence is a very sweet and endearing book that focuses on the lives of Augustin and Safta during the years just before World War II and continuing until just a few years after the war. The two friends grow up together - Safta the daughter of a wealthy Romainian business man and Augustin the deaf and mute son of one of the servants to Safta's family. However as they mature and thier social "place" takes hold, they drift apart only to find each other again after the war has ended.

The...more

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May 04, 2012 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Lisa by: Kimbofo

Shelves: library-book-or-loan, orange-prize

Set postwar in Iași, a city in Romania, Painter of Silence traces the story of Augustin, a deaf-mute, who has found his way across a war-ravaged landscape to give a message to Safta, his childhood friend since their days on the Valeanu family estate at Poiana. This period of Romania’s history included the collectivization of agriculture, forced nationalisations of private property and a reign of terror to eliminate all forms of opposition, real or imagined. There can be few books which so vividl...more

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Mar 18, 2013 Bert rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2013, read-in-dutch

'Als jij eens woorden had voor alles wat je gezien had.' (p.244)

Zijn herinneringen nog herinneringen als je ze niet kan verwoorden? Kan je ze weer tot leven brengen zonder woorden te gebruiken? Heeft het wel zin om wat reeds lang voorbij is nieuw leven in te blazen?

Ook in 'Schilder van stilte' doet Georgina Harding waar ze zo goed in is. Met eenvoudige taal en met een minimum aan literaire truukjes en techniekjes schildert ze een mooi verhaal. Mooi en vooral rustig. Het ritme van het verhaal br...more

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