Novel
Mütter
Not translated into English
Karl Heinrich Waggerl · 1935
Synopsis
In a farming village, around her old midwife, Gertraud, live women and mothers: Maria, the wife of the innkeeper Jakob, the maid Barbara, and with them the coachman Nikolaus and the children of the village. The novel makes these female figures the centre of its narrative, against a background of peasant life; two boys, Peter and Paul, are modelled on the author's nephews.
Context
The fourth and last of its author's novels, published in 1935 by Insel, after the success of his first book and the Austrian State Prize of 1934. It is counted among the variations on a single model, the praise of a peasant life held to be a natural order, with which he won a wide readership. A member from 1936 of a writers' association that served as a cover for the Austrian Nazis, he welcomed the Anschluss in 1938; after 1945 his output was reduced to short prose pieces.
Who it is for
A novel in simple language, carried by humour, in which the female figures matter more than the plot. The peasant literature of the period helps explain its success.
Prizes and reception
Its author's books have been distributed in more than seven million copies in twelve languages; his role under the Nazi regime is still debated today.
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