THE VILLAGE IDIOT begins on a glorious spring day in Paris 1917. Amid the carnage of World War I, some of the foremost artists of the age have chosen to stage a boat race. At the head of the regatta is Amedeo Modigliani, seated regally in a bathtub pulled by a flock of canvasback ducks. But unbeknownst to the competition, he has a secret advantage: his young friend, the immigrant painter Chaim Soutine, is hauling the tub from underwater. Soutine, an unwashed, misfit artist (who incidentally can’t swim), has been persuaded by the Italian to don a ponderous diving suit and trudge along the floor of the river Seine. Disoriented and confused by the artificial air in his helmet, Chaim stumbles through the events of his past and future life.
Award-winning author Steve Stern’s latest novel, THE VILLAGE IDIOT, is now available in paperback. This Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2022 is an imaginative portrait of expressionist painter Chaim Soutine's life - from his impoverished beginnings in an East European shtetl, to his Cinderella patronage by the American collector Albert Barnes, and his perilous flight from the Nazi occupation of France. In this interview conducted by Michael Barson, Senior Publicity Executive at Melville House, Stern talks about how his approach to writing this book differed from that of his previous work; what drew him to write about Soutine in the form of a fictional biography; and who he would like to see involved in a potential film adaptation of THE VILLAGE IDIOT.
The Schuylkill County Coroner’s Office has released the name of the man killed when the van he was driving collided with a tri-axle dump truck last week on Route 209