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The
2004 Award
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The English Years by Norbert Gstrein Translated from the German by Anthea Bell Publisher
of Nominated Edition: |
Nominated by:
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| the complete A-Z listing of nominated authors |
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ABOUT
THE BOOK
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| Gabriel
Hirschfelder is a literary icon, his book an acknowledged masterpiece. Admirers
from all over the world visit his home in Southend-on-Sea to pay homage
to the great man. But fame has come at a price. He fled Vienna shortly before
the outbreak of war, and lived in London with the family of a judge. The
judge's wife took an instant dislike to him, but he found consolation with
the Jewish maid, Clara. Their attic-room idyll did not last long, however.
In 1940 he was classified an "undesirable alien" and sent to a
camp with other internees on the Isle of Man. The friends he made there changed his life forever. Who were Lomnitz and Ossovsky? And who was the fourth man, Harrasser? Was he really deported to Canada or was he murdered? What happened on the Isle of Man to haunt Hirschfelder to his dying day? After the writer's death, a young woman happens to meet his third and last wife and her curiosity is aroused. Her own ex-husband was obsessed with Hirschfelder, so she already knows a little bit about him. But now she feels impelled to make contact with the other women in his life, including Clara. Her search brings to light many surprises as she uncovers a story with far-reaching implications for Hirschfelder's posthumous reputation. |
| ABOUT THE AUTHOR |
| Norbert
Gstrein was born in Mils in the Austrian Tyrol in 1961, and studied
mathematics at Innsbruck and at Stanford University, California. The
English Years is his first novel to be translated into English.
On its publication in Germany, it won widespread critical acclaim and the
coveted Alfred Döblin Prize.
The
translator,
Anthea Bell's translations include W. G. Sebald's Austerlitz,
Françoise Sagan's Painting in Blood, and Mirjam Pressler's
The Story of Anne Frank. Her translation of Hans Bemmann's
The Stone and the Flute won the Schlegel-Tieck Prize. |
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