Death in Rome

Literature & Fiction

WOLFGANG KOEPPEN

Contemporary

Hamish Hamilton Ltd.

The Hothouse

Granta Books

The Hothouse refers to the city of Bonn, with its warm damp climate, but it also refers to the political environment of the temporary capital of divided Germany, where politics in the 1950s was about compromises and half measures. The central character, Keetenheuve, is an idealistic politician-intellectual who has returned from voluntary exile during the Nazi period. Now his idealism becomes a trap for him, as he attempts to break with the past and persuade his colleagues to embrace a radical rejection of militarism. The novel traces the final two days in the life of this depressed, isolated man.

In Rome, four members of a German family are reunited by chance. A young composer, Siegfried; his estranged father, Freidrich, who held office under the Nazis and is once more making his way in public life, this time as a democratically elected burgomeister; Siegfried's uncle, Judejahn, an unrepentant former SS general; and Judejahn's renegade son, Adolf, who is preparing himself for the Catholic priesthood. The four men recount their separate experiences in music, bureaucracy, arms and religion - and, taken together, they personify the German soul. Death in Rome is a history book, a family book, a book about the battle over who gets to represent the authentic face of post-war Germany. It is a devastating and brilliant evocation of an entire nation.

Set during the heady, pre-Second World War days of cabaret-era Germany, the novel centres on Sibylle - a stunning seductress who balances her love affairs with five men at once - and Friedrich, the callow, melancholic youth who obsessively pursues her. Originally banned by the Nazis for its frank sexual themes, Wolfgang Koeppen's first novel is appearing in English. A romance that anticipated Beat literature by nearly twenty years through its dizzying language and exploration of casual love, this is Koeppen's most autobiographical and amusing work.

A Sad Affair

Das Treibhaus Roman. Sueddeutsche Zeitung - Bibliothek; [27

Sueddt. Zeitung GmbH

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