Hester among the Ruins |
|
| Author:
| Kirshenbaum, Binnie |
| ISBN: | 978-0-15-602750-2 |
| Publication Date: | May 2003 |
| Publisher: | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
|
| Book Format: | Paperback |
| List Price: | USD $14.00 |
Book Description:
|
History meets reality when biographer Hester Rosenfeld--very American and marginally Jewish--goes to Munich to research the life of Heinrich Falk and becomes his mistress. Born in Berlin in 1943, raised in the ruins of defeat by a generation of "murderers and cowards," Professor Falk is neither infamous nor famous--he is simply the German Everyman. Hester believes his life story could make for an important contemporary historical document--kitchen-table history. But as she...
More DescriptionHistory meets reality when biographer Hester Rosenfeld--very American and marginally Jewish--goes to Munich to research the life of Heinrich Falk and becomes his mistress. Born in Berlin in 1943, raised in the ruins of defeat by a generation of "murderers and cowards," Professor Falk is neither infamous nor famous--he is simply the German Everyman. Hester believes his life story could make for an important contemporary historical document--kitchen-table history. But as she uncovers more ofhis family history and its possible connection to Nazism, she finds herself reexamining her own feelings about her German immigrant parents and her complicated attraction to Heinrich. As the lovers' intimacy grows, each suspects the other of hiding something about the past.
With the moral power of Bernhard Schlink'sThe Reader, Kirshenbaum's searing novel bears powerful witness to history's unforgettable legacy and its continuing impact.