Published in 1907, The Flaxfield is the undisputed novelistic masterpiece by Stijn Streuvels (1871—1969), a towering figure in the Flemish cultural revival at the turn of the last century. Though well known and well read throughout Europe from the time of its publication onward, and twice made into a movie, the novel made its first and only appearance in English in 1989, in this translation by Peter Glassgold and the late André Lefevere. A lyrical evocation of nature that follows an aging farmer’s flax crop through the course of the year, its description of life on the sweeping fields of prewar Flanders is also an account of a grim and compelling struggle between generations, between father and son.

Sun & Moon. 1989