When Julia Rosenthal returns to the suburban estate of her childhood, the unspoken tensions that permeated her seemingly conventional family life come flooding back. Trying to make sense of the secrets and half truths, she is forced to question how she has raised her own daughter. Meanwhile, her brother, Max, is happy to leave the past undisturbed. But in a different place and time, another woman struggles to tell the story of her early years in wartime Germany, gradually revealing secrets that threaten to collide past and present...
Interpreters
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A skilfully constructed saga spanning five generations...The guilt Julia feels as an adult recalls Hanna's in 'The Reader' by Bernard Schlink, and strongly conveys the still-resonating effects of the Second World War from a German perspective...Interpreters is an ambitious book with an impressive breadth and an inventive way of intertwining its two plots. --Times Literary Supplement
The scene for this wonderful novel is set in the first paragraph: where privet hedges give way to barriers of leylandii and high wrought-iron gates. A place we are told that "could induce a yearning for death in even the most optimistic." Not only does it establish the spikey, drily humorous tone of the narrator, but it clearly marks the territory for a story about the screens that people erect to conceal unpalatable truths as much as to protect themselves from the transgressions of others. Like all the best literary suburbs, behind the neat hedges all is not as it seems...With her characteristic lucid prose and deft characterisation, Eckstein has produced another finely-wrought and gripping novel that is destined to be a favourite with book groups. --Bookgroup.info
Creates a poignantly vivid sense of the horrors of war. The narrative is compelling and powerful. We too, as readers, become interpreters. --We Love This Book
The secrets she discloses are both disturbing and haunting. They touch on universal themes, and give a voice to the many who perished in the war, and the many silent secrets those who survived carried with them to their deathbeds...the characters are so strong and rounded that they will stay with you for years to come. --The Brighton Magazine
You just won't want to stop reading until you reach the end of the book. This is a beautiful and moving story with credible characters that you will quickly warm to.
--Book After Book
A compelling exploration of memory and loss.
--Observer
The scene for this wonderful novel is set in the first paragraph: where privet hedges give way to barriers of leylandii and high wrought-iron gates. A place we are told that "could induce a yearning for death in even the most optimistic." Not only does it establish the spikey, drily humorous tone of the narrator, but it clearly marks the territory for a story about the screens that people erect to conceal unpalatable truths as much as to protect themselves from the transgressions of others. Like all the best literary suburbs, behind the neat hedges all is not as it seems...With her characteristic lucid prose and deft characterisation, Eckstein has produced another finely-wrought and gripping novel that is destined to be a favourite with book groups. --Bookgroup.info
Creates a poignantly vivid sense of the horrors of war. The narrative is compelling and powerful. We too, as readers, become interpreters. --We Love This Book
The secrets she discloses are both disturbing and haunting. They touch on universal themes, and give a voice to the many who perished in the war, and the many silent secrets those who survived carried with them to their deathbeds...the characters are so strong and rounded that they will stay with you for years to come. --The Brighton Magazine
You just won't want to stop reading until you reach the end of the book. This is a beautiful and moving story with credible characters that you will quickly warm to.
--Book After Book
A compelling exploration of memory and loss.
--Observer
About the Author
Sue Eckstein worked for VSO for many years in London, Bhutan and the Gambia. Now a lecturer at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, she is also working on a PhD in creative writing at the University of Sussex. Her plays include The Tuesday Group, first performed in London in 2003, as well as Kaffir Lilies ('Really wonderful - a first rate production' Nell Dunn), Laura and Old School Ties ('Sparky and intriguing, written and performed with a real edge' Guardian) all for BBC Radio 4. Her first novel The Cloths of Heaven was published to great acclaim in 2009, and serialised on BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour in 2010.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By Shauna Smart
Format:Paperback
From the outset, Eckstein's literary abilities are established as complex and diverse. The different styles; journalistic prose, interview, and first person narrative work in unison to encompass the themes threaded through the novel-hidden truths, lies, and untold stories. These underpin the key historical events; WWII and the Holocaust. Eckstein's lean prose style drives a wedge between previous novels based on the war and wartime biographies to create a piece of modern fiction which stands on its own as un clichéd and non sentimental. The author's use of witty stories from Julia's past and an underlying friendly tone are key to the humour of the novel and work to make a subject which could be almost to unbearable to write, completely familiar and tolerable.
Much like her first novel, Eckstein introduces us to hugely human characters that are undeniably easy to relate to. Again, as in 'The Cloths of Heaven', the characters' lives cross over each other in often unexpected and subtle ways; Julia's ex crush Nigel in the solicitors' office, Brown Owl still existing in the old church hall, various (now women) who were infatuated with Max...
Critics may argue that Julia's journey through her childhood home and subsequent childhood memories could be clichéd and sentimental, yet Eckstein's subtle humour, brutal honesty and witty tone, along with (as previously stated) her range of literary styles help to avoid the novel becoming mawkish.
Moreover, Interpreters presents a different perspective of the war, through the eyes of a mentally unstable suburban mother and the effects that it can have on her seemingly `fine' children; how it can lead one to a life surrounded by people and love, to one who does her best to never become the mother she had. With Susanna as a `breath of fresh air'... as a constant presence throughout the novel...there is a continual sense of hope and atonement through the narrative. By the time I (reluctantly) put down Interpreters for the final time, I had to wipe the tears from my eyes and massage my aching cheeks.
Much like her first novel, Eckstein introduces us to hugely human characters that are undeniably easy to relate to. Again, as in 'The Cloths of Heaven', the characters' lives cross over each other in often unexpected and subtle ways; Julia's ex crush Nigel in the solicitors' office, Brown Owl still existing in the old church hall, various (now women) who were infatuated with Max...
Critics may argue that Julia's journey through her childhood home and subsequent childhood memories could be clichéd and sentimental, yet Eckstein's subtle humour, brutal honesty and witty tone, along with (as previously stated) her range of literary styles help to avoid the novel becoming mawkish.
Moreover, Interpreters presents a different perspective of the war, through the eyes of a mentally unstable suburban mother and the effects that it can have on her seemingly `fine' children; how it can lead one to a life surrounded by people and love, to one who does her best to never become the mother she had. With Susanna as a `breath of fresh air'... as a constant presence throughout the novel...there is a continual sense of hope and atonement through the narrative. By the time I (reluctantly) put down Interpreters for the final time, I had to wipe the tears from my eyes and massage my aching cheeks.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Celia H/G
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I liked this book so much that it became my choice of presents for Christmas, and some birthdays subsequently - and I've found that everyone I've given it to has also loved it. It's very compelling (I went back over things because I read it quickly initially in a bid to find out out what happened next), but also very psychologically satisfying. It covers family relationships shrewdly and well and links the reader in with vivid evocations of earlier eras (so that although the recipients of my presents were different ages, those who were alive during the second world war and those who were born after commented that it seemed particularly relevant to them). I also felt that it raised, tackled and resolved issues in interesting and satisfying ways. I would really recommend it.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I loved this book. I found it both humorous and deeply moving. Though much of it is set in two quite specific times and places - 1970s suburban England and 1940s Germany, its themes of guilt, secrets, lies, and how childhood fears give rise to adult insecurities which pass down through generations are universal. There are so many things to think about - I have recommended it to many friends and to my my book group.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
a fantastic book, very well written
Great book sympathetic characters and good storyline, kept your attention throughout and could not put it down. I can recommend it.
Published 13 days ago by L. Steen
5.0 out of 5 stars
A good read
This was a very well thought through plot that came together well at the end. It was not the kind of book I normally read but I thoroughly enjoyed the fascinating characters that... Read more
Published 1 month ago by beardy man
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic read
I do not read a lot of fiction as it is not really my thing. However, as a friend recommended it I thought I would give it a go and I found it to be enthralling and entertaining. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Eden King
3.0 out of 5 stars
A little confusing
A little confusing if you don't read the book in one go. It sometimes takes a while to work out who is speaking or at what time in the storyteller's life.
Published 1 month ago by rude_boy_rogers@hotmail.com
2.0 out of 5 stars
A disappointing read
Strange - hard to follow. Didn't enjoy reading it. I can't make further comments and I don't like to be confined to a certain number of words when I have nothing more to say.
Published 1 month ago by Mrs Pam Coombes
5.0 out of 5 stars
Straight forward storytelling
The Interpreters is a great book. Too many authors these days spend all of their time being clever and overly descriptive all the while avoiding actually telling the story. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Tyler Durden
5.0 out of 5 stars
Haunting and very evocative.
I loved this book, particularly it's unanswered questions and acceptance that not everything makes sense, or has a clear ending. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Bid
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interpreting the Past
Sue Eckstein's second novel is a rather original meditation on the effects of World War II, looking not so much at the war itself but on the effect that the Nazis had on the later... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Kate Hopkins
5.0 out of 5 stars
How well can we ever know each other?
Sue Eckstein and I were at school together - nodding acquaintances, in the same year, but we didn't know each other well and haven't met for over thirty years. Read more
Published 6 months ago by C. Edmunds
5.0 out of 5 stars
Compelling work of fiction
Mothers and daughters. Secrets, truths and memories. Are we remembering or interpreting the past? A compelling work of fiction. 5 stars
Published 8 months ago by Sally-W
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