The Hunger Angel
The Hunger Angel(German:Atemschaukel;2009) is a novel byHerta Müller.An English translation byPhilip Boehmwas published in 2012.
Summary[edit]
It is a depiction of the persecution ofethnic Germans in Romaniaby theStalinistregime of theSoviet Union,and deals withthe deportation of Romanian Germansto the Soviet Union for forced labour bySoviet occupying forcesduring and after 1945. The novel tells the story of a youth fromSibiuinTransylvania,Leo Auberg, who is deported at the age of 17 to a Sovietforced laborconcentration campinNowo-Gorlowka(Novogorlovka,Ukraine,now incorporated inGorlovka) and spends five years of his life there.
It is inspired by the experiences of poetOskar Pastiorand other survivors, including the mother of the author.[1]Initially, Pastior and Müller had planned to write a book about his experiences together, however, Pastior died in 2006.[2]It is based on her interviews with many deportees from her home village ofNițchidorfinRomania;from fragments offered during her childhood by her mother; and extensively from her interactions with the poet Oskar Pastior who was a deportee from Sibiu (Hermannstadt) Romania for five years.
The title comes from a compound word "Hungerengel" coined by Pastior to describe the pervasive hunger that dominated his prison experience in theDonets Basinas war reparations slave labor. The fierce hunger was also an angel that kept him alive during the ordeal. The German title,Atemschaukel,is another compound word that is more difficult to translate, meaning something like "BreathingSwing" or "BreathSwinging", to denote the mechanical and distanced aspects of self-awareness of breathing that the prison experience engendered.
According toRuth Kluegerthis book offers a new direction in German literature, that of fiction by a second hand participant in the camps, whether Gulag or Internment or Concentration or Extermination.[citation needed]
Translation[edit]
Translation rights have been sold in several countries including Poland and Sweden.[3]The working title of "Everything I Possess I Carry With Me", based on the first sentence of the book, was suggested by the German publisher when it sold translation rights, however no English-language translation was published under this title.
Awards and honors[edit]
The novel was nominated for the prestigiousGerman Book Prizein 2009, and the author received theNobel Prize in Literaturethe same year.
The English translation byPhilip Boehmwas nominated for theBest Translated Book Award(2013),[4]and won theOxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize(2013).
Editions[edit]
- The Hunger Angel,Philip Boehm (Translator),Metropolitan Books,April 24, 2012,ISBN978-0805093018
References[edit]
- ^"Atemschaukel" – Roman aus dem Versunkenland,tagesspiegel.de
- ^""Der Vorwurf ist absurd"".
- ^Everything I Possess I Carry With Me,(New books in German).
- ^Chad W. Post (April 10, 2013)."2013 Best Translated Book Award: The Fiction Finalists".Three Percent.RetrievedApril 11,2013.
External links[edit]
- "Half-lives in the shadow of starvation".A review ofThe Hunger Angel,by Costica Bradatan,The Australian,February 2013
- Review: 'The Hunger Angel'
- "Everything I Own I Carry with Me",excerpt from the novel. September 2009
