Zweig, Stefan "The Post Office Girl"

  

Zweig, Stefan "The Post Office Girl" (German: Rausch der Verwandlung) ~1930/1982

Ever since reading "The World of Yesterday" (Die Welt von Gestern), I have long wanted to read another book by Stefan Zweig; and since it happened to be the starter book for "Six Degrees of Separation" this month, I decided to finally pick it up.

Stefan Zweig wrote this book in the 1930s—nearly a hundred years ago. However, it was not published until 1982, when it was released posthumously from his literary estate. The publisher revised the manuscript fragment and supplemented it with notes left by the author.

The story is set in Austria shortly after the First World War. In truth, it could have taken place in any of the post-war nations. Many men never returned home from the war; most people could barely find work and eke out a very meager existence.

Then, an invitation arrives from some wealthy relatives, inviting Christine—a young postal clerk—to stay at a hotel. She is catapulted into a completely alien world—one, however, that does not last very long.

After this holiday, she meets Ferdinand, a returning war veteran who is struggling just as much as she is.

It is a sad story—a bleak story. Stefan Zweig himself did not lead a happy life, and this is reflected in his work here. Yet, he possesses a rare gift—one unmatched by almost any other writer—for gazing into the human soul and making it accessible to us.

I absolutely must make a point of reading another book by this magnificent writer. Do you have any suggestions?

Book Description:

"The post-office girl is Christine, who looks after her ailing mother and toils in a provincial Austrian post office in the years just after the Great War. One afternoon, as she is dozing among the official forms and stamps, a telegraph arrives addressed to her. It is from her rich aunt, who lives in America and writes requesting that Christine join her and her husband in a Swiss Alpine resort.

After a dizzying train ride, Christine finds herself at the top of the world, enjoying a life of privilege that she had never imagined. But Christine’s aunt drops her as abruptly as she picked her up, and soon the young woman is back at the provincial post office, consumed with disappointment and bitterness.

Then she meets Ferdinand, a wounded but eloquent war veteran who is able to give voice to the disaffection of his generation. Christine’s and Ferdinand’s lives spiral downward, before Ferdinand comes up with a plan which will be either their salvation or their doom.

Never before published in English, this extraordinary book is an unexpected and haunting foray into noir fiction by one of the masters of the psychological novel."

Mann, Thomas "Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man"

Mann, Thomas "Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man" (German: Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull) - 1954

Thomas Mann, one of my favorite authors, turned 150, and since I didn't want to end the year without reading at least one of his novels new to me, I went on a search. I had this book on my TBR pile, so the decision was easy.

I must confess, I had no idea that this book was unfinished. I now know that Mann worked on it for a long time and certainly made numerous notes about the plot, but only completed the first part and then died before writing the second.

What a shame, the beginning is already good. The second part would certainly have been just as excellent as anything by Thomas Mann.

In any case, the book has a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor. And even though Felix Krull manages to outwit many people, one can only admire his cunning.

The book is a very good read; I really enjoyed it.

I am not very happy with the translation of the word "Hochstapler" into "Confidence Man". Maybe that's my German thinking but the word "confidence" sounds far too nice to call someone who tricks other people. Impostor, cheater, trickster, swindler sound much more accurate to me.

Book Description:

"'The most astonishing work that Mann ever wrote and also one of the most perfect. . . with Felix Krull the world receives from Thomas Mann the gift which German literature has almost proverbially withheld from it: the great comic novel' - Edwin Muir

Waiter by day man about Paris by night, the young and good looking Felix Krull has created for himself a personality to charm and deceive the world of wealth. Then the Marquis de Venosta makes a proposal that he can't refuse."

Thomas Mann received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929 "principally for his great novel, 'Buddenbrooks', which has won steadily increased recognition as one of the classic works of contemporary literature".

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von "Faust"

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von "Urfaust. Faust: Erster und zweiter Teil" (German: Faust I + II) - 1772-1808

After reading "The Sound and the Fury" for our classics spin challenge, I thought I will never get through Faust in time if that gets chosen, so I started it right away.

The story is said to be the greatest work of German literature and I can well believe that. 250 years have passed in the meantime but I don't believe that there has been a single book that is as well-known around the world than this.

Even though my edition had more than a thousand pages, I got through it faster than I thought. I mentioned it a lot of times, I am no fan of reading plays, it's not so easy to follow through. However, I didn't find this too bad. Maybe because, growing up in Germany, I've come across descriptions and fragments of the story before. And I found a lot of aphorisms, metaphors, symbols and sayings that we use in German often, quite often. Goethe is our Shakespeare, he has moulded the language more than anyone.

The story itself, well, what can I say? It shows the view of women at the time, of the religion and beliefs of people. The morale of the time is depicted just as well as the internal struggles of the protagonist. And even for non-Germans, the play shows so much of people that would be valid anywhere.

My edition didn't just have the Faust that we know today but also the Urfaust, his early work. It shows all versions in parallel which helps in seeing what he changed and what he added. Totally interesting.

I can well believe that Goethe needed about sixty years to write the whole tale, starting with the Gretchen story and then passing on to Helena. Part I was first published as "Faust. A Tragedy".

All in all, I am really happy I finally read this.

Book Description:

"Goethe's Faust is a classic of European literature. Based on the fable of the man who traded his soul for superhuman powers and knowledge, it became the life's work of Germany's greatest poet. Beginning with an intriguing wager between God and Satan, it charts the life of a deeply flawed individual, his struggle against the nihilism of his diabolical companion Mephistopheles.

Part One presents Faust's pact with the Devil and the harrowing tragedy of his love affair with the young Gretchen. Part Two shows Faust's experience in the world of public affairs, including his encounter with Helen of Troy, the emblem of classical beauty and culture. The whole is a symbolic and panoramic commentary on the human condition and on modern European history and civilisation.

This new translation of both parts of Faust preserves the poetic character of the original, its tragic pathos and hilarious comedy. In addition, John Williams has translated the Urfaust, a fascinating glimpse into the young Goethe's imagination, and a selection from the draft scenarios for the Walpurgis Night witches' sabbath - material so ribald and blasphemous that Goethe did not dare publish it."

Herrndorf, Wolfgang "Why We Took the Car"

Herrndorf, Wolfgang "Why We Took the Car" (German: tschick) - 2010

My book club recommended this book to me; they had read it some time ago.

Two boys from different backgrounds but with a similar fate. And both outsiders.

I found the novel very entertaining, but also very compassionate. You could both laugh and cry at the experiences of the two.

What can I say, it was really a great reading experience.

From the back cover:

"A beautifully written, darkly funny coming-of-age story from an award-winning, bestselling German author

Mike Klingenberg isn’t exactly one of the cool kids at his school. For one, he doesn’t have many friends. (Okay, zero friends.) And everyone laughs when he has to read his essays out loud in class. And he’s never, ever invited to parties — especially not the party of the year, thrown by the gorgeous Tatiana.

Andrej Tschichatschow, aka Tschick (not even the teachers can pronounce his name), is new in school, and unpopular as well, but in a completely different way. He always looks like he’s just been in a fight, he sleeps through nearly every class, and his clothes are tragic.

But one day, out of the blue, Tschick shows up at Mike’s house. It turns out he wasn’t invited to Tatiana’s party either, and he’s ready to do something about it. Forget the popular kids — together, Mike and Tschick are heading out on a road trip across Germany. No parents, no map, no destination. Will they get hopelessly lost in the middle of nowhere? Probably. Will they make bad decisions, meet some crazy people, and get into trouble? Definitely. But will anyone ever call them boring again?

Not a chance."

Erpenbeck, Jenny "Kairos"

Erpenbeck, Jenny "Kairos" (German: Kairos.) - 2021

This was the starter book for this month's Six Degrees of Separation. I haven't read the starter book very often but this was a new acclaimed book by an author I'd read and liked before, so I gave it a go.

I quite liked "The End of Days" (Aller Tage Abend) and hope this one would be just as good.

Jenny Erpenbeck was the first German author to receive the 2024 International Booker Prize.

This was an okay read but I was a little disappointed. The writing was not as fluent as expected. I think the love story should reflect the relationship between the two countries. And that was not a bad attempt. But, I didn't care for either of the protagonists, I couldn't feel sorry for them.

For those who don't know much about the former GDR or how the fall of the fall came about it probably isn't a bad book, though there are better ones that will tell you about this (The Tower/Der Turm, for instance)

All in all, I found the book, boring, tedious and tiresome. Yet another Booker prize award that I didn't like.

The title comes from an ancient Greek term for the right time.

From the back cover:

"Jenny Erpenbeck’s much anticipated new novel Kairos is a complicated love story set amidst swirling, cataclysmic events as the GDR collapses and an old world evaporates Jenny Erpenbeck (the author of Go, Went, Gone and Visitation ) is an epic storyteller and arguably the most powerful voice in contemporary German literature. Erpenbeck’s new novel Kairos - an unforgettably compelling masterpiece - tells the story of the romance begun in East Berlin at the end of the 1980s when nineteen-year-old Katharina meets by chance a married writer in his fifties named Hans. Their passionate yet difficult long-running affair takes place against the background of the declining GDR, through the upheavals wrought by its dissolution in 1989 and then what comes after. In her unmistakable style and with enormous sweep, Erpenbeck describes the path of two lovers, as Katharina grows up and tries to come to terms with a not always ideal romance, even as a whole world with its own ideology disappears."

Paretti, Sandra "The Wishing Tree"

Paretti, Sandra "The Wishing Tree" (German: Der Wunschbaum) - 1975

Actually nothing more than a love story that I read many years ago. Could also have been a threepenny novel.

The English subtitle actually says it all: "The Saga of a Woman and her Family and a Dream That Wouldn't Die". The cover photo on the English edition does the rest.

But I know that there are readers who like this type of literature. Because, otherwise, it was well written.

From the back cover:

"In 1900 Camilla Hofmann is seventeen. The home of her parents is in Berlin's Steglitz. It's a big house with a park around it. Her father goes bankrupt, the family business is lifted, the main house is sold and the family falls apart. Camilla, the youngest, is nothing else but the memory ... and the desire ever to get back in that house in Steglitz and be able to sit under the big lime tree which is told that he wishes come true can let go."

Wells, Benedict "The End of Loneliness"

Wells, Benedict "The End of Loneliness" (German: Vom Ende der Einsamkeit) - 2016

A quiet book about a family that suddenly isn't a family anymore. How do children cope with the death of their parents, how do they get on?

In this story we can see what happens next. Or not. How this loss accompanies a child throughout their entire life, how it shapes their life.

After the death of their parents, the children grow up in a boarding school, which is also described very impressively. Here the author probably drew on his own experiences, as he too was at boarding school at the age of six.

This is a fabulous book that captures all facets of an entire life (or several). Wonderfully written, a fascinating family story that is so comprehensive despite only being just over 350 pages long. Terrific. 

I think I will read more from this young author.

From the back cover:

"Jules Moreau’s childhood is shattered after the sudden death of his parents. Enrolled in boarding school where he and his siblings, Marty and Liz, are forced to live apart, the once vivacious and fearless Jules retreats inward, preferring to live within his memories - until he meets Alva, a kindred soul caught in her own grief. Fifteen years pass and the siblings remain strangers to one another, bound by tragedy and struggling to recover the family they once were. Jules, still adrift, is anchored only by his desires to be a writer and to reunite with Alva, who turned her back on their friendship on the precipice of it becoming more, but just as it seems they can make amends for time wasted, invisible forces - whether fate or chance - intervene.

A kaleidoscopic family saga told through the fractured lives of the three Moreau siblings alongside a faltering, recovering love story, The End of Loneliness is a stunning meditation on the power of our memories, of what can be lost and what can never be let go. With inimitable compassion and luminous, affecting prose, Benedict Wells contends with what it means to find a way through life, while never giving up hope you will find someone to go with you."

"The End of Loneliness" has been chosen favourite book of the year 2016 by the German Indepent Book Shops and received the European Union Prize for Literature.

German Unity Day

 

"Top Ten Tuesday" is an original feature/weekly meme created on the blog "The Broke and the Bookish". This feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists at "The Broke and the Bookish". It is now hosted by Jana from That Artsy Reader Girl.

There is always a "Top Ten Tuesday" on the 4^th of July for the US Americans and I thought, I'll take the opportunity to create a German one on our National Holiday.

"German Unity Day (German: Tag der Deutschen Einheit) is the National Day of Germany, celebrated on 3 October as a public holiday.[1] It commemorates German reunification in 1990 when the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) joined the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), so that for the first time since 1945 there existed a single German state." (Wikipedia)

Here are some of my favourite books by German authors or about Germany. I can recommend all of them. You might learn a little more about the country than just the usual six years that everybody knows everything about, or at least think they do.

Ahmad, Aeham "The Pianist from Syria" (aka The Pianist of Yarmouk) (GE: Und die Vögel werden singen. Ich, der Pianist aus den Trümmern) - 2017
Grass, Günter "The Box: Tales From the Darkroom" (GE: Die Box. Dunkelkammergeschichten) - 2008 (Nobel Prize winner 1999)
Grjasnowa, Olga "All Russians Love Birch Trees" (GE: Der Russe ist einer, der Birken liebt) - 2012
Hansen, Dörte "This House is Mine" (GE: Altes Land) - 2015
MacGregor, Neil "Germany. Memories of a Nation" - 2014
Pamuk, Orhan "Snow" (TR: Kar) - 2002 (Nobel Prize winner 2006)
Pausewang, Gudrun "The Last Children" (GE: Die letzten Kinder von Schewenborn oder … sieht so unsere Zukunft aus?) - 1983
Regener, Sven "Berlin Blues" (GE: Herr Lehmann) - 2001
Tellkamp, Uwe "The Tower" (GE: Der Turm) - 2008
Wolf, Christa "They Divided the Sky" (aka Divided Heaven) (GE: Der geteilte Himmel) - 1963

📚 Happy Reading! 📚

Canetti, Elias "Auto-da-Fé"

Canetti, Elias "Auto-da-Fé" (German: Die Blendung) - 1935

For the The Classics Spin #34, we were given #13, and this was my novel.

What a book! Did I like it? Hm, hard to tell. It is described as grotesk, obscure, weird, … And weird it is.

The book tells the story of Peter Kien, a sinologist and philologist who lives very reclusively in his apartment with his books. He marries his housekeeper but he slides more and more into madness.

Peter's brother Georg is a famous psychologist in Paris. Alerted by one of Peter's acquaintances, he comes to Vienna in order to help but, alas, is not successful.

This is a very complex book that cannot possibly be explained in a few words. Its a book of obsession and criticism, of society at the time but also a warning about what was to come. After all, this was two years after the nazis gained power in Germany and many people, like the author, feared for the future. And they were right, as it turned out.

The meaning of the English title is explained in Wikipedia:
An auto-da-fé (/ˌɔːtoʊdəˈfeɪ, ˌaʊt-/ AW-toh-də-FAY, OW-; from Portuguese auto da fé [ˈawtu ðɐ ˈfɛ], meaning 'act of faith'; Spanish: auto de fe [ˈawto ðe ˈfe]) was the ritual of public penance carried out between the 15th and 19th centuries of condemned heretics and apostates imposed by the Spanish, Portuguese, or Mexican Inquisition as punishment and enforced by civil authorities. Its most extreme form was death by burning.

The book was first published in English with the title "The Tower of Babel".
The translation of the original titel "Die Blendung" would be translated into "Blinding as a punishment", "Glare", "Deception", or even in the sense of "Verblendung" as "Infatuation". All these words could be used as the title of the book. In the German book description, it is said that "like Joyce's 'Ulysses', 'The Blinding' is a powerful metaphor for the lonely reflective mind's confrontation with reality." Sounds correct to me.

Book Description:

"'Auto-da-Fé' is the story of Peter Kien, a distinguished, reclusive sinologist living in Vienna between the wars. With masterly precision, Canetti reveals Kien's character, displaying the flawed personal relationships which ultimately lead to his destruction.

Manipulated by his illiterate and grasping housekeeper, Therese, who has tricked him into marriage, and Benedikt Pfaff, a brutish concierge, Kien is forced out of his apartment - which houses his great library and one true passion - and into the underworld of the city. In this purgatory he is guided by a chess-playing dwarf of evil propensities, until he is eventually restored to his home. But on his return he is visited by his brother, an eminent psychiatrist who, by an error of diagnosis, precipitates the final crisis...

'Auto-da-Fé' was first published in Germany in 1935 as 'Die Blendung' ('The Blinding' or 'Bedazzlement') and later in Britain in 1947, where the publisher noted Canetti as a 'writer of strongly individual genius, which may prove influential', an observation borne out when the author was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1981. 'Auto-da-Fé' still towers as one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century, and Canetti's incisive vision of an insular man battling agianst the outside world is as fresh and rewarding today as when first it appeared in print."

Elias Canetti received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1981 "for writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas and artistic power".

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Since this book takes partly place in Paris, it can also go with the project #parisinjuly2023.

Dumbach, Annette E. "Sophie Scholl and the White Rose"

Dumbach, Annette E.; Newborn, Jud; Gierlichs, Annerose "Sophie Scholl and the White Rose" (German: Die Geschichte der weißen Rose) - 2002

As I already wrote in my description of "The White Rose" by Inge Aicher-Scholl: If there are any books that everyone should read, the story of the White Rose is definitely one of them.

This is another book on the subject. While Inge Aicher-Scholl was the sister of siblings Hans and Sophie, the authors of this book were journalists who researched the life of the group. Another point of view that brings us even more information about the life and work of these young people. You just have to admire them and ask yourself: What would I have done in their place?

A few quotes from Sophie Scholl that we should all take to heart:

Stand up for what you believe in even if it means you stand alone.

Offer passive resistance – resistance – wherever you may be, forestall the spread of this atheistic war machine before it is too late ... (from the first leaflet; 1942)

I still believe I did the best I could for my people right now. Therefore, I do not regret my actions and I want to accept the consequences that arise from my actions.

I am, now as before, of the opinion that I did the best that I could do for my nation. I therefore do not regret my conduct and will bear the consequences that result from my conduct.

And from Hans:
Long live freedom!

From the back cover:

"In the spring and summer of 1942, five young German students and one professor at the University of Munich crossed the threshold of toleration to enter the realms of resistance, danger and death. Protesting in the name of principles Hitler thought he had killed forever, Sophie Scholl and other members of the White Rose realized that the 'Germanization' Hitler sought to enforce was cruel and inhuman, and that they could not be content to remain silent in its midst."

In addition to the Scholl siblings, we should not forget the other members who were also executed:
Alexander Schmorell, Christoph Probst, Willi Graf and the university professor Kurt Huber.

Petrowskaja, Katja "Maybe Esther"

Petrowskaja, Katja "Maybe Esther" (German: Vielleicht Esther) - 2014

A great tale of a Jewish family's history. One critic wrote that Katja Petrowskaja could have written a great novel, but only reproduced fragments. I think it is precisely these fragments that show more of what this family - representative of all other Jewish families - went through, all the little details that you don't often hear about.

A wonderful book.

From the back cover:

"An inventive, unique, and extraordinarily moving literary debut that pieces together the fascinating story of one woman’s family across twentieth-century Russia, Ukraine, Poland, and Germany.

Katja Petrowskaja wanted to create a kind of family tree, charting relatives who had scattered across multiple countries and continents. Her idea blossomed into this striking and highly original work of narrative nonfiction, an account of her search for meaning within the stories of her ancestors.

In a series of short meditations, Petrowskaja delves into family legends, introducing a remarkable cast of characters: Judas Stern, her great-uncle, who shot a German diplomatic attaché in 1932 and was sentenced to death; her grandfather Semyon, who went underground with a new name during the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, forever splitting their branch of the family from the rest; her grandmother Rosa, who ran an orphanage in the Urals for deaf-mute Jewish children; her Ukrainian grandfather Vasily, who disappeared during World War II and reappeared without explanation forty-one years later - and settled back into the family as if he’d never been gone; and her great-grandmother, whose name may have been Esther, who alone remained in Kiev and was killed by the Nazis.

How do you talk about what you can’t know, how do you bring the past to life? To answer this complex question, Petrowskaja visits the scenes of these events, reflecting on a fragmented and traumatized century and bringing to light family figures who threaten to drift into obscurity. A true search for the past reminiscent of Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything Is Illuminated, Daniel Mendelsohn’s The Lost, and Michael Chabon’s Moonglow, Maybe Esther is a poignant, haunting investigation of the effects of history on one family."

In 2013, Katja Petrowskaja received the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize, one of the most important awards for literature in the German language.

Suttner, Bertha von "Lay Down Your Arms"

Suttner, Bertha von "Lay Down Your Arms" or "Down with Weapons!" (German: Die Waffen nieder!) - 1889

This is my eleventh Classic Spin and we were given #6.

A present from a dear friend who knows what I appreciate. On the German cover, the description says: "Der Roman für den Frieden" - "The Novel for Peace."

And that's what it is. Bertha von Suttner inspired Alfred Nobel to add the Nobel Peace Prize to the different categories in 1901. Four years later, she was the first woman to receive it. And well deserved.

The name of the protagonist is different from the author, yet the book is always described as an auto-biography. Bertha von Suttner grew up in a similar environment as her Martha Althaus. And at the same time. She lived during a time where war was something people not just accepted but rejoiced about, a lot of the men in her surroundings, nobility like herself, were soldiers, many of the women wives of soldiers. And it was clear in the society, that children should be raised to become soldiers and fight for their country, as well.

Bertha von Suttner lived from 1843 to 1914, so she died just a month before the outbreak of WWI. It was probably good that she didn't live to see this anymore though I am sure she knew what was coming. I have only just read a book about 1913 (illies) and most people didn't have a clue though I am sure she did.

In her book, she writes about the horrors of war, not just what the soldiers have to go through but mainly what their loved ones have to suffer. Her book was a huge success, she didn't seem to be the only one who thought this world would be better off without wars. I totally agree with her but we still haven't learned.

Bertha von Suttner was probably one of the first pacifists. Leo Tolstoy compared of her novel to that of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the same result to war than to slavery. I wish he had been right.

She also founded the German Peace Society.

From the back cover:

"Lay Down Your Arms! (novel), English title of the 1889 novel "Die Waffen Nieder!" by the Austrian pacifist activist Bertha von Suttner, who received the 1905 Nobel Peace Prize for it. 'We English-speaking people, whether in England, in the Colonies, or in the United States, being ourselves in no immediate danger of seeing our homes invaded, and our cities laid under contribution by hostile armies, are apt to forget how terribly the remembrance of such calamities, and the constant threat of their recurrence, haunt the lives of our Continental brethren.' - T. Holmes

Austrian novelist Bertha von Suttner was one of the first notable woman pacifists. She is credited with influencing Alfred Nobel in the establishment of the Nobel Prize for Peace, of which she was the recipient in 1905. Her major novel, Die Waffen nieder! (1889; Lay Down Your Arms!), has been compared in popularity and influence with Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin.

The daughter of an impoverished Austrian field marshal, she was a governess to the wealthy Suttner family from 1873. She became engaged to Baron Arthur Gundaccar von Suttner (1850-1902), an engineer and novelist, seven years her junior. The opposition of his family to this match caused her, in 1876, to answer Nobel's advertisement for a secretary-housekeeper at his Paris residence. After only a week she returned to Vienna and secretly married Suttner."

Bertha von Suttner received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905 "for her audacity to oppose the horrors of war."

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Here are all the books on my original Classics Club list.
And here is a list of all the books I read with the Classics Spin.

Illies, Florian "1913: The Year before the Storm"

Illies, Florian "1913: The Year before the Storm" (German: 1913: Der Sommer des Jahrhunderts) - 2012

How did the First World War come about? This question is asked frequently and attempts are made to answer it just as frequently. But that is not the purpose of this book. The author brings a contemporary testimony here. How was life the year before? When people still lived peacefully and thought of no evil. We hear about writers like Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka, James Joyce, Marcel Proust and others, painters like Ernst Macke, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Marcel Duchamp, musicians like Igor Stravinsky, psychologists Sigmund Freud and C.G. Young, that Stalin and Hitler were in Vienna at the same time (if only they had met and smashed each other's heads!), how the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I and his heir to the throne Franz-Ferdinand were doing.

Many, many people are portrayed here, month after month we follow their lives and society in general and know that everyone's lives will be completely different in the next, never quite the same.

A good history book.

From the back cover:

"The year 1913 heralds a new age of unlimited possibility. Louis Armstrong learns to play the trumpet. Kafka is in love and writes endlessly long, endlessly beautiful letters to Felice Bauer. Charlie Chaplin signs his first movie contract.

Yet everywhere there is the premonition of ruin - the number thirteen is omnipresent, and in London, Paris, Vienna, Berlin and Trieste, artists begin to act as if there were no tomorrow. In a hotel lobby, Rilke and Freud discuss beauty and transience; Proust sets out in search of lost time; and while Stravinsky celebrates The Rite of Spring with industrial cacophony, in Munich an Austrian postcard painter by the name of Adolf Hitler sells his conventional cityscapes.

Hermann, Judith "The Summerhouse, Later"

Hermann, Judith "The Summerhouse, Later" (German: Sommerhaus, später) - 1998

These short stories mainly take place in Germany. As the description says, there are nine different characters, each with a different life. There's a taxi driver. And a young woman who remembers her great-grandmother. People like you and me who live in Berlin. An interesting mix. But anyone who knows me will also know what I think of it. Nine individual books would have been better.

Book Description:

"'The little jewellery box also held the red coral bracelet from Nikolai Sergeyevich. Its six hundred and seventy-five little coral beads were strung onto a silken thread, and they glowed as red as rage. My great-grandmother put the hairbrush down in her lap. She closed her eyes for a long time. Then she opened her eyes again, took the red coral bracelet from the little box and fastened it around her left wrist. Her skin was very white. That evening, for the first time in three years, she shared a meal with my great-grandfather.'

Coral bracelets 'as red as rage' from Russian lovers; a sad old woman who nonetheless 'sometimes sang and winked with her left eye and laughed till the tears came’; country houses ‘away from Berlin, linden trees out front, chestnuts in the back, sky above': 'The Summer House, Later' is an elegant, measured, reflective collection of stories which captures beautifully the promise of bright colours lying just out of reach of our grey daily routines.

Set in and around Europe's fastest-growing, fastest-living city, these stories take as their starting point the monotony of modern urban life - the endless antennas and chimneys, the pigeons in the gutters - and looks beyond them to 'the narrow strip of sky over the rooftops'. The literary sensation of the year in her native Germany, Judith Hermann is a wonderfully talented young writer whose ability to find drama and beauty in the smallest, most trivial moments makes 'The Summer House, Later' a very special debut indeed."

"In nine luminous stories of love and loss, loneliness and hope, Judith Hermann's stunning debut collection paints a vivid and poignant picture of a generation ready and anxious to turn their back on the past, to risk uncertainty in search of a fresh, if fragile, equilibrium. An international bestseller and translated into twelve languages, 'The Summerhouse, Later' heralds the arrival of one of Germanys most arresting new literary talents."

Sendker, Jan-Philipp "A Well-Tempered Heart"

Sendker, Jan-Philipp "A Well-Tempered Heart" (Burma Trilogy #2) (German: Herzenstimmen) - 2012

After reading "The Art of Hearing Heartbeats" (Das Herzenhören), the first part of the Burma Trilogy, I naturally had to know how the story continues.

Julia Win, whom we already know from the first book, suddenly hears a voice inside her. She is advised to go back to Burma to find out what the voice is trying to tell her. I don't believe in such mystical experiences, but Julia's story on her return visit is very interesting. She learns the history of Burma, meets new people, finds a new love, sees her life with different eyes. And the reader learns a lot about the differences between East and West.

As always, Jan-Philipp Sendker has written a wonderful story about Asia. His language is captivating and this is a very good sequel to a wonderful book.

From the back cover:

"Almost ten years have passed since Julia Win came back from Burma, her father’s native country. Though she is a successful Manhattan lawyer, her private life is at a crossroads; her boyfriend recently left her, she has suffered a miscarriage, and she is, despite her wealth, unhappy with her professional life. Julia is lost and exhausted.

One day, in the middle of an important business meeting, she hears a stranger’s voice in her head that causes her to leave the office without explanation. In the following days, her crisis only deepens. Not only does the female voice refuse to disappear, but it starts to ask questions Julia has been trying to avoid. Why do you live alone? To whom do you feel close? What do you want in life?

Interwoven with Julia’s story is that of a Burmese woman named Nu Nu who finds her world turned upside down when Burma goes to war and calls on her two young sons to be child soldiers. This spirited sequel, like The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, explores the most inspiring and passionate terrain: the human heart."

Aicher-Scholl, Inge "The White Rose"

Aicher-Scholl, Inge "The White Rose: Munich, 1942-1943" (German: Die weiße Rose) - 1952

Inge Scholl was the sister of Hans and Sophie Scholl and is writing this book about her siblings and the Munich resistance group.

If there are any books that everyone should read, the story of the White Rose is definitely one of them. It shows that even in deepest Nazi Germany there were people who resisted, who paid for it with their lives, but who should be a great role model for all of us.

As the book description says, this book is not only based on Inge Scholl's memories, but also on documents that have been secured.

Similar to the book "The Wave", the author describes how the young people were first carried away by the Nazi movement. Fortunately, there were also some who eventually became skeptical.

A sad book, but also one that encourages.

From the back cover:

"The White Rose tells the story of Hans Scholl and Sophie Scholl, who in 1942 led a small underground organization of German students and professors to oppose the atrocities committed by Hitler and the Nazi Party. They named their group the White Rose, and they distributed leaflets denouncing the Nazi regime. Sophie, Hans, and a third student were caught and executed.

Written by Inge Scholl (Hans and Sophie's sister), The White Rose features letters, diary excerpts, photographs of Hans and Sophie, transcriptions of the leaflets, and accounts of the trial and execution. This is a gripping account of courage and morality."

Kästner, Erich "Emil and the Detectives"

Kästner, Erich "Emil and the Detectives" (German: Emil und die Detektive) - 1929

This is one of THE German classics and I had never read it. So, when the "Read the Year" club chose 1929 for their next challenge, I found that this novel was from that year and decided to read it.

My two favourites by Erich Kästner are "Three Men in the Snow" (GE: Drei Männer im Schnee) and "Lisa and Lottie" (aka The Parent Trap) (GE: Das doppelte Lottchen). They are both funny and interesting. Still, Emil and his detectives never attracted me as much. And I was right. For me, this story wasn't as captivating as the other ones. Probably because I'm not much into crime stories.

But the story teaches us something. The harder we have to work something, the more we appreciate its value. And if we can find like-minded people, everything is easier. We can follow a mutual goal and work for a better world.

That is what Erich Kästner has always tried to bring across. And he managed it here, as well.

From the back cover:

"If Mrs Tischbein had known the amazing adventures her son Emil would have in Berlin, she'd never have let him go.

Unfortunately, when his seven pounds goes missing on the train, Emil is determined to get it back - and when he teams up with the detectives he meets in Berlin, it's just the start of a marvellous money-retrieving adventure . . .

A classic and influential story, Emil and the Detectives remains an enthralling read."

Bruckner, Karl "The Day of the Bomb"

Bruckner, Karl "The Day of the Bomb" (German: Sadako will leben) - 1961

I read this story as a child and it made a big impression on me. I learned a lot about the war from my parents, but this is definitely one of the books that contributed to me being anti-war and anti-nuclear power throughout my life.

The book should be on every school reading list. We get to know Sadako and her life and her will to live so well, we can put ourselves in her shoes and experience her drama up close.

No wonder the author received the Austrian Children's and Youth Book Prize for it.

From the back cover:

"First published in 1961 under the German title Sadako Will Leben (meaning Sadako Wants to Live), this non-fiction book by renowned Austrian children’s writer Karl Bruckner is considered his most famous work.

Telling the vivid story about a Japanese girl named Sadako Sasaki, who lived in Hiroshima and died of illnesses caused by radiation exposure following the horrific atomic bombing of the city in August 1945, the book has been translated into most major languages and has been used as material for peace education in schools around the world."

"The day of the bomb was a day which was to change the lives of all mankind, not just Sadako.

Sadako is a little girl who lives with he parents and elder brother in wartime Hiroshima. She is a thin little girl because she doesn't get enough to eat, but she has a chubby face because she is still very young.

On August 6th, 1945, Sadako and her brother go to join the queue for food outside the Ministry. But Sadako is too weak to wait for their ration and her brother decides to carry her home. On the way he stops to bathe while Sadako sleeps on the lakeside.

Just as he dives into the lake the atom-bomb explodes over the town.

Sadako and her family survive the dropping of the bomb and the subsequent rigours of life in a post-war world - the black market, the shortages, the bitter competition. The pleasures and the tragedy of life in Japan at this time are seen here through the eyes of the young girl who wins local fame for her prowess in a bicycle relay race, only to find that even she cannot cycle fast to escape the events of the past.

Her story - and through it the story of mankind - is told with the vivid detail of a colour film and the sensitivity of a human documentary. It is an account without bitterness and without horror of an event that changed the course of history."

There is also another children's book about Sadako and her ordeal:
Coerr, Eleanor "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes" - 1977

Kafka, Franz "The Judgment"

Kafka, Franz "The Judgment" (German: Das Urteil) - 1912

A son's relationship with his father. The bad relationship between son and father. The terrible relationship between son and father. Supposedly the closest thing to Kafka's autobiography. If so, I no longer wonder at this writer's insane thoughts. How can a father wish his son dead?

Well, Kafka really isn't my thing at all.

Book Description:

"'The judgment' is considered the most autobiographical of Kafka's stories. First, there are Kafka's own commentaries and entries in his diary. When he re-read the story, for instance, he noted that only he could penetrate to the core of the story which, much like a newborn child, 'was covered with dirt and mucus as it came out of him'; he also commented in his diary that he wanted to write down all possible relationships within the story that were not clear to him when he originally wrote it. This is not surprising for a highly introverted writer like Kafka, but it does illustrate the enormous inner pressure under which he must have written 'The judgment.'"

Gotthelf, Jeremias "The Black Spider"

Gotthelf, Jeremias "The Black Spider" (German: Die schwarze Spinne) - 1842
A story that is probably as old as mankind. Several old legends are processed here. The eternal struggle between Good and Evil is described. The devil tries to bribe people. And anyone who doesn't keep their pact with him will be punished. I'm surprised they haven't made a movie out of it yet. Or maybe they did?

From the back cover:

"It is a sunny summer Sunday in a remote Swiss village, and a christening is being celebrated at a lovely old farmhouse. One of the guests notes an anomaly in the fabric of the venerable edifice: a blackened post that has been carefully built into a trim new window frame. Thereby hangs a tale, one that, as the wise old grandfather who has lived all his life in the house proceeds to tell it, takes one chilling turn after another, while his audience listens in appalled silence. Featuring a cruelly overbearing lord of the manor and the oppressed villagers who must render him service, an irreverent young woman who will stop at nothing, a mysterious stranger with a red beard and a green hat, and, last but not least, the black spider, the tale is as riveting and appalling today as when Jeremias Gotthelf set it down more than a hundred years ago. The Black Spider can be seen as a parable of evil in the heart or of evil at large in society (Thomas Mann saw it as foretelling the advent of Nazism), or as a vision, anticipating H. P. Lovecraft, of cosmic horror. There’s no question, in any case, that it is unforgettably creepy."