Death In Danzig - Softcover

Chwin, Stefan

3.76

428 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099481367 ISBN 13: 9780099481362

Publisher: Vintage, 2006

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A moving portrait of people in transition - between old and new, life and death. Germans flee the besieged city of Danzig in 1945. Poles driven out of eastern regions by the Russians move into the homes hastily abandoned by their previous inhabitants. In an area of the city graced with beech trees and a stately cathedral, the stories of old and new residents intertwine: Hanemann, a German and a former professor of anatomy, who chooses to stay in Danzig after the mysterious death of his lover; the Polish family of the narrator, driven out of Warsaw; and a young Carpathian woman who no longer has a country, her cheerful nature concealing deep wounds. Through his brilliantly defined characters, stunning evocation of place, and memorable description of remnants of a world that was German but survives in Polish households, Chwin has created a reality that is beyond destruction.

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Review:

"Much of Death in Danzig's intriguing, Kleist-haunted eeriness derives from its fascination with objects, often promoted to the role of surrogate characters...It is a mark of Chwin's expertise that, while the novel figurative superstructures never quite recede into the Baltic fog, its real interest lies in the teeming human traffic below." (DJ Taylor, Independent)

"'A richly expressive novel of enforced cultural change in postwar Danzig...A beautiful book, and nothing about it is more sumptuously and expressively beautiful than Philip Boehm's translation'" (Guardian)

"Dreamlike, mournful novel." (Catherine Taylor The Guardian)

From the Publisher:

Widely-regarded as one of the finest European novels of recent years: a highly topical gem of a novel.

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