“The border is not at the border.” Traveling on One Leg follows Irene, a young woman who flees the oppressive regime of Ceaușescu’s Romania for West Germany. Disoriented […]
German literature
Job
“And God took Job’s children, his cattle, his house, his health—but not his faith.” Chapter 1: Mendel Singer’s Life in Zuchnow The novel opens in the small Jewish […]
German literature
The Emigrants
“Memory, the insistent revenant, like the dog that always finds its way back to its vomit.” — W. G. Sebald, The Emigrants Dr. Henry Selwyn The first section […]
German literature
Night in Lisbon
“There are nights when the whole world seems to be a vast, dark labyrinth, and you are lost in it.” Chapter 1: The Encounter A nameless narrator, a […]
Russian literature
Glory
“The only way back is forward.” Chapter 1: Early Years Martin Edelweiss, a young Russian émigré, grows up in pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg in a privileged but emotionally distant […]
Russian literature
Mary
“Memory is a capricious and arbitrary creature. You never can tell what pebble she will pick up from the shore of life to keep among her treasures…” Chapter […]
Russian literature
The Gift
“The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.” Chapter 1 […]