Vital... (Erpenbeck) is asking a compelling and timely question'Sally Rooney,Irish TimesRichard has spent his life as a university professor,immersed in the world of books and ideas. Recently retired,he steps into the streets of his city,Berlin,and discovers a new community. A tent city has grown up on Oranienplatz,established by African asylum seekers. Hesitantly getting to know the people there,Richard finds his life changing,as he begins to question his own sense of belonging in a city that once divided its citizens into them and us. At once a passionate contribution to the debate on race,and a beautifully written examination of an ageing man's quest for meaning,Go,Went,Gone showcases one of the great contemporary European novelists at the height of her powers.'Profound,beautiful and deeply affecting... (An) extraordinary novel,bearing unflinching testament to history as it unfolds'Neel Mukherjee,New Statesman'One of Europe's most highly regarded writers... Erpenbeck's most significant work to date'Financial Times
MEDIA REVIEWS
Publisher: Granta BooksISBN: 9781846276224Number of pages: 304Weight: 215 gDimensions: 198 x 129 x 18 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
Erpenbeck is becoming one of Europe's most highly regarded writers,perpetually striving to create an artistic prism through which to interpret history's arc... Superbly translated by her usual collaborator Susan Bernofsky (...) there is a melancholic undertone to the novel,murmuring beneath its condensed,liquid prose. Deceptively unhurried,yet undeniably urgent,this is Erpenbeck's most significant work to dateEurope's outstanding literary seer,Jenny Erpenbeck's new novel resonates with an unexpected simplicity that is profound,unsettling and subtle. Astutely translated by Susan Bernofsky (...) Erpenbeck's powerful tale,delivered in a wonderfully plain,candid tone,is both real and true. It will alert readers,make us more aware and,it is to be hoped,more humanA remarkable novel which questions our understanding of borders and identity and which calls above all for compassionSusan Bernofsky's finely crafted translation (...) reaches Anglophone readers at an opportune moment... Erpenbeck binds the upheavals of past and present,Europe and Africa. Lyrical and satirical by turns,she shows that fearful isolation,emotional or political,hurts wall-builders and wall-jumpers alikeVital... (Erpenbeck) is asking a compelling and timely questionAcclaimed novelist Jenny Erpenbeck has gone further than most in examining the ephemeral nature of human life... An immensely ambitious novel,tackling a wide,complex range of themes,it is about the arbitrariness of borders,both literal and metaphorical,and the notion of foreignness as opposed to belonging. It is about the complex nature of comprehension and compassion,and the places genuine empathy between foreign bodies might be achieved... It is also a clarion call,a righteous protest against dehumanising government systems (...) Ultimately Erpenbeck - wise,caring and profound - triumphs in this heart-rending plea for universal tolerance and respect(In) this wise,moving novel (...) Erpenbeck demands that her fellow countrymen show compassion to those whose lives have been "cut off,as if with a knife"'At once urgent and contemporary (...) the brilliant German novelist,Jenny Erpenbeck,has taken on the churn of the great issues of refugees,illegal immigration and asylum in her latest novel,Go,Went,Gone and created something profound,beautiful and deeply affecting... It is a mark of Erpenbeck's compassion and her complex,nuanced understanding of the human motivations of sympathy that she can make (a) (white,liberal) weakness of Richard a tender,even humorous seam in her book... (An) extraordinary novel,bearing unflinching testament to history as it unfoldsJenny Erpenbeck shows us that we are involved already,whether we want to be or notNot only timely but masterfulVery movingLyrical,absorbing
Kommentar