The Dark Dad
War and trauma — a daughter’s tale
$29.60
- Paperback
264 pages
- Release Date
9 April 2025
Summary
Art historian Mary Kisler grew up in the early 1950s with a father who talked little, whose affection she cherished and whose anger she feared. She later came to understand the trauma that lay behind his dark moods: rejection and violence in his childhood and the brutal experience of being a prisoner of war in Italy and then Germany from late 1941 to 1945.
In this affecting memoir, she traces back through her father’s life and war record, discovering a man who had suffered but who ult…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781991016560 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 1991016565 |
| Author: | Mary Kisler |
| Publisher: | Massey University Press |
| Imprint: | Massey University Press |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 264 |
| Release Date: | 9 April 2025 |
| Weight: | 358g |
| Dimensions: | 210mm x 148mm x 19mm |
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What They're Saying
Critics Review
‘A powerful, redemptive story and one of forgiveness’ — Mihingarangi Forbes, RNZ
‘Evokes such a deep sense of sorrow I went off and had a little cry’ — Linda Herrick, NZ Listener
‘A memorable, plain-speaking book of dogged research’ — Sally Blundell, Reading Room
‘Exceptionally well researched’ — Jenny Nicholls, Waiheke Weekender
‘Those who have read Kisler will know how she can look at a painting and, supported by assiduous research, guide you methodically around it, with pellucid prose deciphering it into an accessible world of story and meaning. Here she does the same with her father and the locations in which he found himself in World War II. These skills of an art writer serve a memoirist well’ — Guy Somerset, Aotearoa New Zealand Review of Books
‘An engaging and balanced narrative’ — Anne Kerslake Hendricks, Canvas
About The Author
Mary Kisler
Art historian, curator and writer Mary Kisler MNZM worked for 21 years at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, latterly as Senior Curator, Mackelvie Collection, International Art. In 2016, she was Craig Hugh Smyth Fellow at the Harvard Centre for Renaissance Art, Villa I Tatti, Florence, researching Italian works held in New Zealand Public Collections. Her previous publications include Angels & Aristocrats: Early European art in New Zealand public collections (Godwit, 2010); Finding Frances Hodgkins (Massey University Press, 2019), and as contributing author and coeditor with Catherine Hammond, Frances Hodgkins — European Journeys (Auckland University Press in Association with Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, 2019 and Thames and Hudson, 2019). Kisler also helped to create
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