Go, Went, Gone - Softcover

Erpenbeck, Jenny; Bernofsky, Susan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0811225941 ISBN 13: 9780811225946

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2017

Synopsis

Go, Went, Gone is the masterful new novel by the acclaimed German writer Jenny Erpenbeck, "one of the most significant German-language novelists of her generation" (The Millions). The novel tells the tale of Richard, a retired classics professor who lives in Berlin. His wife has died, and he lives a routine existence until one day he spies some African refugees staging a hunger strike in Alexanderplatz. Curiosity turns to compassion and an inner transformation, as he visits their shelter, interviews them, and becomes embroiled in their harrowing fates. Go, Went, Gone is a scathing indictment of Western policy toward the European refugee crisis, but also a touching portrait of a man who finds he has more in common with the Africans than he realizes. Exquisitely translated by Susan Bernofsky, Go, Went, Gone addresses one of the most pivotal issues of our time, facing it head-on in a voice that is both nostalgic and frightening.

About this title

Review:

Erpenbeck's prose, intense and fluent, is luminously translated by Susan Bernofsky.--James Wood

Wonderful, elegant, and exhilarating, ferocious as well as virtuosic.--Deborah Eisenberg

Dreamlike, almost incantatory prose.

A nuanced depiction of people who have largely given up the luxury of hope and have little to do but wait. Erpenbeck bluntly reminds readers what is at stake for Germany and, by extension, the world. A timely, informed, and moving novel of political fury.--Brendan Driscoll"Go, Went, Gone" (08/15/2017)

Erpenbeck is scathing about the absurdities of a nightmarish bureaucracy that appears to deliberately wrongfoot refugees. Deceptively unhurried, yet undeniably urgent, this is Erpenbeck's most significant work to date.

An extraordinary novel, bearing unflinching testament to history as it unfolds.--Neel Mukherjee (08/15/2017)

A retired widower and classics professor takes an interest in African migrants staging a hunger strike in Berlin and finds himself tumbling into a world of harrowing stories and men who share a common sense of loss.

This timely novel brings together a retired classics professor in Berlin and a group of African refugees. The risk of didacticism is high, but the book's rigor and crystalline insights pay off, aesthetically and morally.

A highly sophisticated work.--Kate Web"Jenny Erpenbeck finds a novel way to tackle the migrant problem" (01/20/2018)

Calls to mind J.M. Coetzee, whose flat, affectless prose wrests coherence from immense social turmoil. By making the predicament of the refugee banal and quotidian, Erpenbeck helps it become visible.-- (09/22/2017)

About the Author:

Jenny Erpenbeck was born in East Berlin in 1967. New Directions publishes her books The Old Child & Other Stories, The Book of Words, and Visitation, which NPR called "a story of the century as seen by the objects we've known and lost along the way."

Susan Bernofsky is the acclaimed translator of Hermann Hesse, Robert Walser, and Jenny Erpenbeck, and the recipient of many awards, including the Helen and Kurt Wolff Prize and the Hermann Hesse Translation Prize. She teaches literary translation at Columbia University and lives in New York.

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0811225941
• ISBN 13: 9780811225946
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320