Novel
Herod's Children
Die größere Hoffnung
Ilse Aichinger · 1948
Synopsis
A city at war, under persecution. Ellen, about fifteen, has two grandparents on the wrong side; her mother has left for America, and she dreams of following her. To obtain a visa, she slips into a consulate at night, spreads a map of the world on the floor and sails a paper boat across it. Around her, children marked with the star, driven out of the public gardens, play, invent and wait.
Context
The book was published in 1948 in Amsterdam by Bermann-Fischer, and its author had interrupted her medical studies to finish it. It consists of ten successive tableaux: the grandparents, just or false, the star, the visa that is not granted. Long little read despite the reviews, it was reissued in 1960 by S. Fischer, the author having revised and tightened the text for this paperback edition, which all editions have followed since.
Who it is for
Three hundred pages of dreamlike prose, where the narrative advances through images rather than events. Nothing in it is explained, and one must accept understanding after the fact.
Prizes and reception
The only novel by its author, hailed as one of the first texts published on the years of war and persecution; translated into French in 2007.
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