Library for the War-Wounded - Hardcover

Helfer, Monika

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 163973239X ISBN 13: 9781639732395

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024

Synopsis

The internationally bestselling novel-a daughter's portrait of her WWII veteran father, assembled from shards of memory.

We called him Vati, Dad. Not Papa. He thought it sounded modern. He wanted to present himself to us, and through us, as a man in tune with the modern age. A man who could be read as having a different past.

Inspired by the author's family history, Library for the War-Wounded transports readers to the aftermath of World War II, uncovering the life of Helfer's father, Josef. Born with the stigma of illegitimacy, he found solace in books, and his education was eventually funded by the Catholic Church. Drafted into the Wehrmacht, he witnessed the horrors of the Eastern Front and returned from the war an amputee. He married his nurse and brought his family to the high, idyllic slopes of the Austrian Alps, where he took a position as manager of a convalescent home for war-wounded.

Josef was a man of many mysteries. To his daughter Monika, none was greater than his obsession with the home's unlikely and remarkable library, his great treasure and comfort as the country barrels away from the memory of war. He will stop at nothing to save it-even when it tears apart his family.

Beautifully restrained and compressed, Library for the War-Wounded turns lived experience into great literature by confronting the universal question: Can we ever truly know our parents?

About this title

About the Author

Monika Helfer is the bestselling author of novels, short stories, and children's books, including, most recently, Löwenherz (Lionheart), Vati (Daddy), and Die Bagage (Last House Before the Mountain). She lives in Hohenems, Austria.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 163973239X
• ISBN 13: 9781639732395
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 208