Here in Berlin is a portrait of a city through snapshots, an excavation of the stories and ghosts of contemporary Berlinits complex, troubled past still pulsing in the air as it was during World War II. Critically acclaimed novelist Cristina Gar̕ca brings the people of this famed city to life, their stories bristling with regret, desire, and longing.
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Publisher:
Berkeley, California : Counterpoint, [2017]
ISBN:
9781619029590
1619029596
1619029596
Characteristics:
208 pages : map ; 24 cm
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Add a CommentOrdinary writing. Very short linked stories.
Really liking this novel a lot. I'm about halfway through; one can start and stop anywhere and then pick it up again. Vignettes, pieces of a Berliner's life, stories told to Dear Visitor, our narrator.
This is a quote from the LA Review of Books (which is a journal I like and peruse): " . . . Here in Berlin is an impeccable linguistic exercise in narratology and a brilliant exploration of the various identities we adhere to in metropolitan environments. García successfully rehumanizes a German postwar trauma of a populace that for so long coped with the making anonymous of people through genocide, the deadening speed of its capitalist structures, and the oppressive world of East Berlin. . . " (10/17 edition online)
I love the premise, the narrator listening and the storytellers having significant and meaningful tales to tell. I lived in a lot of countries in the 90s and 00s teaching ESL and I heard stories, oh did I hear stories.
P.S. a few days later: be forewarned--there are some horrible cruelty stories in this novel.