Eros

Author:   Helmut Krausser ,  Mike Mitchell
Publisher:   Europa Editions
ISBN:  

9781933372587


Pages:   352
Publication Date:   14 November 2008
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

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Eros


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Overview

Someone is watching over Sofie Kurtz. At times, from a great distance. At others, her mysterious guardian comes much too close. But as she evolves, from teenage war orphan, to political activist, to militant dissident Sofie is only vaguely aware of her benefactor's hand in the events that compose her life story. There are inexplicable coincidences and strange encounters, obscure facts that make her question the degree of control she has over life and lead to a lingering paranoia that becomes devastating. A reclusive millionaire name Alexander von Brucken invites an unnamed author to his mansion. If he accepts the invitation he must be willing to listen carefully to Von Brucken's story, then leave without ceremony and record it in writing. The author will be paid a small fortune for his efforts and, with a story such as his to tell, literary fame is guaranteed. The magnate's only stipulation is that the book not be published until after his death. His is a story of the arrogance of limitless power, of the apparent ineluctability of the status quo, and of a ruinous, sovereign obsession with a young girl he chanced to meet during the war - a young girl named Sofie Kurtz. Helmut Krausser is one of Germany's most daring contemporary writers. In this engrossing novel he traces the period from Nazi Germany to the fall of the Berlin Wall in a modern allegory of power and powerlessness. The clash of truth and fiction and the unholy chemistry of fanaticism and erotic obsession vivify a seductive narrative about the dangerous games that Eros plays with us. Praise for Eros 'History and smart narrative art in one book - one cannot ask for much more.' Financial Times (Germany) 'Helmut Krausser has succeeded in writing the great German epochal novel.' Focus 'Krausser takes the age-old motif of love unrequited until death a step further- this is a novel that already reads like a classic.' Playboy (Germany) 'An incredibly suspenseful and stylish novel.' Die Presse 'Helmut Krausser's books demonstrate just how far literature can be pushed.' Suddeutsche Zeitung 'A book about the thin line that separates love, passion, and madness, about the anatomy of obsession and, almost in passing, about the twentieth century's major catastrophes. Eros is Krausser's most intense and most elegant book, and his most poetic. This really is a great novel.' Daniel Kehlmann, author of Measuring the World

Full Product Details

Author:   Helmut Krausser ,  Mike Mitchell
Publisher:   Europa Editions
Imprint:   Europa Editions
Dimensions:   Width: 13.50cm , Height: 2.60cm , Length: 21.00cm
Weight:   0.354kg
ISBN:  

9781933372587


ISBN 10:   1933372583
Pages:   352
Publication Date:   14 November 2008
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   No Longer Our Product
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

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Reviews

?History and smart narrative art in one book?one cannot ask for much more. Financial Times (Germany)<br><br> ?Krausser has succeeded in writing a great German epochal novel. Focus <br><br> ?Krausser takes the age-old motif of love unrequited until death a step further: this is a novel that already reads like a classic. Playboy (Germany)<br><br> ?An incredibly suspenseful and stylish novel. Die Presse


A novel of obsession - only partially erotic - that spans 50 years of German history, from World War II till the fall of the Berlin Wall.Alexander von Brucken is old and dying, and as a final dramatic gesture he requests an unnamed novelist to listen to the story of his life and, after his death, to fictionalize these incidents and thus chronicle a lifelong obsession he had with Sofie Kurtz, a girl he originally met when they took shelter together during bombing raids. Several years after the war von Brucken takes over the family business, becomes a millionaire and tries to trace Sofie, who had been lost in postwar chaos. Eventually he discovers her in the village of Wuppertal, where she was living with her stepsister Birgit. Both girls are rivals for the affection of Rolf Schnitgerhans, an attractive, politically active suitor, and Rolf is happy to oblige the two of them. Shortly thereafter the girls' fates take them down different paths: Birgit becomes a prominent lawyer, gradually becoming more establishment after a flirtation with radical politics, while Sofie tries to remain true to her radical roots. She's finally arrested for taking part in a bank robbery intended to help fund her political leanings. The unfolding of Sofie's life becomes for von Brucken an idee fixe, and he has Lukian Keferloher, one of his loyal employees, keep her under careful watch - though the plan is somewhat thwarted when Lukian falls in love with her. It turns out that von Brucken is at least as much in love with control as with Sofie and he discovers that the eroticism of power has seldom been adequately celebrated by writers for the plain and simple reason that hardly any writers have ever possessed power and felt its thrill for themselves. By telling his story von Brucken tries to give a sense of that thrill.Though occasionally slow-moving, this narrative explores major themes of obsession, passion and control. (Kirkus Reviews)


aHistory and smart narrative art in one bookaone cannot ask for much more.aa Financial Times (Germany) <br> aKrausser has succeeded in writing a great German epochal novel.aa Focus <br> aKrausser takes the age-old motif of love unrequited until death a step further: this is a novel that already reads like a classic.aa Playboy (Germany) <br> aAn incredibly suspenseful and stylish novel.aa Die Presse


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