Heinrich Böll Boeken

'Verzamelde verhalen 1947-1956' van Heinrich Boll bevat het korte proza van deze auteur uit de genoemde periode. Hierin zijn ook de niet eerder vertaalde verhalen opgenomen - in de Nederlandse vertaling van Pim Lukkenaer. De andere vertalers van Boll - H.L. Mulder, J. Bernard, J.W.F. Klein-von Baumhauer en W. Wielek-Berg - zijn hier met hun eerder verschenen vertalingen vertegenwoordigd. Het herlezen van Boll blijft een boeiende ervaring. De verhalen van kort na de oorlog dragen duidelijk de sporen van die periode, maar wel is de auteur er al volledig in aanwezig. Het blijft verwonderlijk hoe iemand in dergelijke omstandigheden zo zijn menszijn heeft weten te bewaren. Tegelijkertijd gaat het hierbij om verhalen die zich door de jaren heen hebben weten te handhaven. De eenvoud en directheid van dit proza zullen daartoe zeker hebben bijgedragen.

Drie generaties van een architectenfamilie zijn verbonden met een abdij, door de Tweede Wereldoorlog heen.

Nobel Prize winner Heinrich Böll's powerful novel about a woman terrorized by the media A Penguin Classic In an era in which journalists will stop at nothing to break a story, Henrich Böll's The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum has taken on heightened relevance. A young woman's association with a hunted man makes her the target of a journalist determined to grab headlines by portraying her as an evil woman. As the attacks on her escalate and she becomes the victim of anonymous threats, Katharina sees only one way out of her nightmare. Turning the mystery genre on its head, the novel begins with the confession of a crime, drawing the reader into a web of sensationalism, character assassination, and the unavoidable eruption of violence. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

These stories by the Nobel prizewinning German author were written between 1946 and 1952, but not published in Germany until 1983. They are short but bitterly exact sketches of the daily lives of Germans during World War II and its aftermath.

English, German (translation)

'Böll's novel blows a stent in the human heart. . . It feels more necessary than ever.' Anna Funder, from the introduction 'This is the best book I have read this year; not by miles, but by whole astronomical units; I am stunned by it as if by a blow. It is *astonishing* to the extent that I cannot convey to you its power' Sarah Perry, bestselling author of The Essex Serpent and Melmoth Twenty-four-year-old Andreas, a disillusioned German soldier, is travelling on a troop train to the Eastern Front when he has an awful premonition that he will die in exactly five days. As he hurtles towards his death, he reflects on the chaos around him - the naïve soldiers, the painfully thin girl who pours his coffee, the ruined countryside - with sudden, heart-breaking poignancy. Arriving in Poland the night before he is certain he will die, he meets Olina, a beautiful prostitute, and together they attempt to escape his fate... 'His work reaches the highest level of creative originality and stylistic perfection' Daily Telegraph 'Boll combines a mammoth intelligence with a literary outlook that is masterful and unique' Joseph Heller, author of Catch-22 'My most-admired contemporary novelist' John Ashbery 'From the moment I stepped on board the troop train with Private Andreas, concerns pertaining to my own world fell away completely. Holding this impelling book is tantamount to holding the young soldier's fate in one's hands. It is impossible to let go.' Claire-Louise Bennett, author of Pond

This is Ireland seen through the loving eyes of a novelist and a stranger - the lilt of the voices, the laughter of the children, the smell of the wet earth, and the warm, heady friendliness of the pubs are evoked here with amused understanding and a matchless vitality.

Hitler's once great army is broken and demoralized, the end of the war is imminent--but still soldiers are rounded up like criminals and sent to the front, Jews are 'evacuated, ' guns are fired, shells explode. In this novel Boll paints war as a series of idiocies, senseless accidents, and bizarre coincidences related only through death.