The Dark Dad

The damage done to a family by war

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 ultimately found peace of mind among the people he loved most.

To look inside, click here.

‘A powerful, redemptive story and one of forgiveness’ — Mihingarangi Forbes, RNZ’s Saturday Morning

‘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, ReadingRoom

‘Exceptionally well researched’ — Jenny Nicholls, Waiheke Weekender

‘An engaging and balanced narrative’ — Anne Kerslake Hendricks, Canvas

‘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