The Dark Room: A Novel
"Helmut: A boy born with a physical deformity finds work as a photographer's assistant during the 1930s and captures on film the changing temper of Berlin, the city he loves.
Work Information
"Helmut: A boy born with a physical deformity finds work as a photographer's assistant during the 1930s and captures on…
"Helmut: A boy born with a physical deformity finds work as a photographer's assistant during the 1930s and captures on film the changing temper of Berlin, the city he loves. But his acute photographic eye never provides him with the power to understand the significance of what he sees through his camera.... Lore: In the weeks following Germany's surrender, a teenage girl whose parents are both in Allied captivity takes her younger siblings on a terrifying, illegal journey through the four zones of occupation in search of her grandmother.... Micha: Many years after the war, a young man trying to discover why the Russians imprisoned his grandfather for nine years after the war meets resistance at every turn; the only person who agrees, reluctantly, to help him is compromised by his own past."--BOOK JACKET.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Pantheon
- Published
- 2001-05-01
- Pages
- 288 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 16.15 x 2.59 x 24.18 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780375421044
- ISBN-10
- 0375421041
- Category
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/British/Historical
A debut novel that retells the history of twentieth-century Germany through the experiences of three ordinary Germans. Helmut: A boy born with a physical deformity finds work as a photographer’s assistant during the 1930s and captures on film the changing temper of Berlin, the city he loves. But his acute photographic eye never provides him with the power to understand the significance of what he sees through his camera. . . . Lore: In the weeks following Germany’s surrender, a teenage girl whose parents are both in Allied captivity takes her younger siblings on a terrifying, illegal journey through the four zones of occupation in search of her grandmother. . . . Micha: Many years after the war, a young man trying to discover why the Russians imprisoned his grandfather for nine years after the war meets resistance at every turn; the only person who agrees, reluctantly, to help him is compromised by his own past. The Dark Room evokes the experiences of the individual with astonishing emotional depth and psychological authenticity. With dazzling originality and to profound effect, Rachel Seiffert has re-envisioned and illuminated signal moments of the twentieth century in all their drama and complexity.
Rachel Seiffert was born in England in 1971 and now lives in Germany
Reviews
-
本物だ。
表紙の写真が気になって買いました。この簡潔な文体は、本物です。僕は、自分が障害者であるせいか、ヘルムートという一編が好きです。
-
本のタイトルはひとつだけど
初めにこの本に会った時、てっきり長編だと思いました。読んで見たら、実に三つの短編小説からなっていました。三つともかなりいいセンスで書かれていてフックされます。ただ、三つのストーりになんらかの関連を持たせて長編にしたほうがもっと良かったと思います。
-
yet it is still a good read. I feel this novel is worthy of ...
An interesting and intense novel of three self contained parts. The first describes World War II through the eyes of a young man with a crippled arm who experiences the war through his camera lens and through his attempts to record details about people movements. The second part is a story about five children who have to walk the entire length of Germany to find their grandmother. This happens at the very end of the War, when Russian, American and British forces advanced into the country, began to divide it into sectors, and imposed barriers to movement. The children are led by their resourceful oldest sister and are assisted by a mysterious adult they meet along the way. The last story describes the attempts of a post war generation German to understand, and come to terms with, the actions of his late, beloved grandfather during the war. The three parts are stand-alone and only connected by their setting in Germany in WWII. This is therefore not a novel in the traditional sense, it is rather three themed novelettes. The first part was of interest to me, because it contains almost no dialogue at all, yet it is still a good read. I feel this novel is worthy of its accolades and recommend it for anyone who has a connection with or interest in how ordinary people were affected by WWII during the war and even a generation later. I understand this is not a factual book, however, there is no doubt that it is based on facts. I found the book a very absorbing and thought provoking read that resonated with many, many things my German parents (who were children during the war) told me about.
-
Excellent though challenging
Each part of this book is quite different drawing us deeper into the ordinariness and the pain and even the ordinariness of thoughtless murder. The challenge for the 21st century is how do we prevent thoughtless catastrophe from happening on our watch! We are left with lots of unanswered questions but that is OK. There probably aren’t answers to some of the questions raised.
-
A great read
I was very touched by the movie, so I went on reading the novel. I loved it, movie and book add to each other
-
Exzellent und befremdlich
Ich habe dieses Buch mit gemischten Gefühlen gelesen, fand den Einstieg sehr schwierig, die mittlere Geschichte atemberaubend und den Schluss echt schwerverdaulich und kompliziert zu lesen. Der Stil, die Art der Dialoge, das ist wirklich gewöhnungsbedürftig und hat mich am Ende dann auch eher von einer vollständigen Begeisterung abgehalten. Vor allem die 3. Geschichte ist zu lang, zeitweise zu "nichtssagend", weil zu auseinandergefächert. Ich konnte mir darauf keinen Reim machen. Deshalb bin ich völlig unsicher, was ich von dem Buch halten soll, ausser was die mittlere Geschichte betrifft: die ist absolut lesenswert.
-
startling and deeply moving
Very powerful account of the experience of German families in and after WWII. It grips with descriptions of survival and guilt