Deutschland allein zu Haus
Book review by UC Berkeley undergraduate Sara Sellami: Deutschland allein zu Haus is a novel written by the Turkish-German author, Osman Engin, and was published in 2013. The book tells the story of a Turkish-German family coming back from vacations in Turkey to find out that the neo-Nazi party was elected and plans on getting […]
Book Review: “Schuld” (Guilt)
As part of their work for the Multicultural Germany undergraduate seminar at UC Berkeley, students in the course have reviewed recent German books relating in various ways to topics of migration, multiculturalism, and contemporary German identity. Jennelle Mathews reviewed Ferdiand von Schirach’s 2010 collection of short stories, Schuld (Guilt): Originally published in Germany in 2010, […]
Schuld
English translation: Guilt, translated by Carol Janeway, New York: Knopf, 2012 Book review by UC Berkeley undergraduate Jennelle Mathews: Originally published in Germany in 2010, Ferdinand von Schirach’s Guilt is a collection of short stories centered on the dimensions of guilt present in human nature. Specifically, the short stories are based in modern Germany and involve […]
Jacob beschliesst zu lieben
Jacob beschliesst zu lieben is Florescu’s latest novel. Following upon biographical escapes (which his first two novels embody), Florescu’s Jacob is an expressive family saga. Beyond being a mere testament for a future, this novel is foremost about the ambiguity of birth and origin. The novel opens in an epic way, in an immediate storm […]
Zaira
In this text, Romania continues to be the storyworld of the spectacular and exotic but also a topos for identity crises. Zaira’s life starts on the countryside ranch where she lives with her mother. The two women have a difficult relationship and the young daughter takes refuge in her imaginary world. It is another spectacular […]
Der blinde Masseur
Turning towards the past, Catalin Dorian Florescu captures individual worlds, extraordinary and miraculous ones. Der blinde Masseur is the story of a blind man, who massages his patients while they read to whim out loud or record literary master pieces in exchange for their treatment. In the village, at the edge of the world, the […]
Der kurze Weg nach Hause
Der kurze Weg nach Hause is a Bildungsroman, as Florescu stated during a reading in the winter of 2012. The novel constructs a spectacular journey towards individuality for Florescu’s characters. Young and addicted to life and excess, Luca and Ovidiu, as protagonists, embark on a journey that takes them from Zürich back to a lost […]
Wunderzeit
Storytelling through the eyes of one’s childhood makes Florescus first novel Wunderzeit a success. His novel is a journey through the past of places and childhood memories: at the Yugoslavian border, the family’s flight from a communist Romania allows the protagonist, Alin, to remember his childhood, his travel with his father to the US for […]
Der falsche Inder
Ein geheimnisvolles arabisches Manuskript im ICE Berlin-München, das niemandem zu gehören scheint und worin acht Mal auf verschiedene Weise die Lebensgeschichte desjenigen erzählt wird, der es zufällig findet und liest: Dieses Romandebüt handelt von der Flucht eines jungen Irakers, der unter Saddam Hussein im Gefängnis saß und vor Krieg und Unterdrückung flieht, sich in mehreren […]