Review
"'An exhilirating, liberating, brief and delightful novel with a story at every turning' New Statesman 'Quirky, thoughtful and often poetic, it opens a subjective and fascinating window on to the recent past' The Times 'Cultish, electrifying memoir' Independent on Sunday 'Huelle writes in such an engaging, chatty style that you hardly notice the fraught circumstances underlying every tale' Guardian 'Playful, bittersweet, juggling irony with regret' Independent"
Independent on Sunday
A writer whose work is full of depth and allusion... pulses with irony that Mann would have been proud of... wonderfully absurd humour
Independent
An intelligent, intriguing and atmospheric novel worthy of its inspiration. It is admirably served by Antonia Lloyd-Jones' nuanced and readable translation
Observer
'A delightful period piece... His style is charmingly effective, the book written with an understated wit very much of the era in which it is set, and gently, deceptively provocative'
Financial Times
Huelle is a skilful ironist who displays great subtlety of touch as he embraces the absurd.
Sean O'Brien, TLS Books of the Year 2007
'A breezy and ingenious comic prequel to The Magic Mountain'
Product Description
SHORTLISTED FOR THE INDEPENDENT FOREIGN FICTION PRIZE 2008 Picking up on a throwaway line in The Magic Mountain, Castorp tells the story of Hans Castorp?s student years in Gdansk, long before the adventures in Davos described in Thomas Mann?s novel. Pawel Huelle skilfully creates a credible scenario for this influential period in Hans Castorp?s development, imagining what happened when the rational German student was exposed to the Slavonic eastern edge of the Prussian empire. He comes across people, events and ideas that anticipate some of the encounters he will experience in years to come, including an enigmatic Polish woman who becomes his obsession. Set at the dawn of the twentieth century, Castorp faithfully recreates the atmosphere of central Europe as the storm began that would lead to two world wars. Beautifully written, full of humour, mystery and eccentricity, this is a moving tribute to a masterpiece of European literature.
About the Author
Pawel Huelle was born in 1957. The author of Who Was David Weiser?, Huelle is a novelist, playwright and journalist who has lived most of his life in Gdansk. His latest novel Castorp was published in Poland in 2004.
