Days on Fire

John Vanderslice follows up his metafictional romantic comedy Burnt Norway with a powerful historical novel about Vincent Van Gogh, an artist that many of us think we know but don't really--not like this. Spanning the arc of Van Gogh's life from his boyhood years in Holland to his breakdown in Arles to his year of confinement in St. Paul's asylum in Saint-Rémy, Days on Fire leads readers through a veritable roller coaster of blunted hopes, harrowing romances, personal betrayals, backbreaking labor, and, finally, hard-earned artistic success. For all the evident ire and disappointment in Van Gogh's famously turbulent life, Days on Fire is ultimately a story of success, not tragedy.