Four Freedoms - Paperback

by John Crowley (Author)

"So rich and so evocative and so authentic." --Tom Brokaw, author of The Greatest Generation

"John Crowley is a virtuoso of metaphor, a peerless recreator of living moments, of small daily sublimities." --New York Times Book Review

From the critically acclaimed author of Lord Byron's Novel and The Translator comes a novel set in World War II America that follows the stories of a group of aircraft factory workers--in particular, the enigmatic figure of draftsman Prosper Olander. Named one of the Best Books of 2009 by the Washington Post, Four Freedoms is a beautifully crafted story of liberation and redemption from an author who has been compared to Robertson Davies, Thomas Mann, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Front Jacket

In the early years of the 1940s, as the nation's young men ship off to combat, a city springs up, seemingly overnight in the fields of Oklahoma: the Van Damme airplane factory, a gargantuan complex dedicated to the construction of the necessary machinery of warfare. Laborers--mostly women--flock to this place, enticed by the opportunity to be something more than wife and homemaker. For Vi, fleeing a dying ranch; for Connie, following an unfaithful husband; for Diane, leaving behind the hot music and soldier boys to pursue something different, adult, and real; their journeys will be liberating in ways they couldn't previously imagine, and it will lead each of them to Prosper Olander--disabled artist, forger, friend, lover, and the true heart and soul of the temporary city--who will change their lives in profound and unexpected ways.

Back Jacket

In the early years of the 1940s, as the nation's young men ship off to combat, a city springs up, seemingly overnight in the fields of Oklahoma: the Van Damme airplane factory, a gargantuan complex dedicated to the construction of the necessary machinery of warfare. Laborers--mostly women--flock to this place, enticed by the opportunity to be something more than wife and homemaker. For Vi, fleeing a dying ranch; for Connie, following an unfaithful husband; for Diane, leaving behind the hot music and soldier boys to pursue something different, adult, and real; their journeys will be liberating in ways they couldn't previously imagine, and it will lead each of them to Prosper Olander--disabled artist, forger, friend, lover, and the true heart and soul of the temporary city--who will change their lives in profound and unexpected ways.