Set in Romania at the height of Ceausescu's reign of terror, "The Land of Green Plums" tells the story of a group of young students, each of whom has left the impoverished provinces in search of better prospects in the city. It is a profound illustration of a totalitarian state which comes to inhabit every aspect of life; to the extent that everyone, event the strongest, must either bend to the oppressors, or resist them and perish.
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About the Author
Born in Romania in 1953, Herta Muller lost her job as a teacher and suffered repeated threats after refusing to cooperate with Ceausescu's Secret Police. She succeeded in emigrating in 1987 and now lives in Berlin. A renowned novelist, poet and essayist, Muller won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2009.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Herta Muller uses delicate imagaery (factory workers making 'tin sheep and wooden melons') to convey the quiet desperation lurking behind the fake, fixed smiles of ordinary citizens in the police state of communist Romania. The narrator leaves her poor country village to go to the city, where she hopes to find some meaning in her life. Instead she finds that no matter how hard she tries, she cannot stop the fear and despair that comes to infiltrate her every waking moment ('In this county, we had to walk, eat, sleep and love in fear'). Muller wonderfully evokes the harsh reality of the totalitarian state were, in having their freedom and ability to make their own choices taken away from them, human beings are reduced to zombies. A bleak and heart-rending story, but one which nonetheless has to be told.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By G. Chambers
Format:Hardcover
I read the book after the author won the Nobel Prize and I knew a bit about her and about the subject of her writing .Being Romanian myself I had my doubts about enjoying it . Well , I was in for a huge surprise ! I can't say what was most enjoyable , the story itself with episodes that seamed so real and so easy to identify with the life experience of probably 90% of the people that lived in Romania at that time (not necessary the one related to fear and surveillance) or the way the poetry is felt underneath every sentence trying to mellow the crude experience of the characters . My only regret is that she writes in German and I do not have any knowledge of German - but even though , definitely the best modern book I read for a long , long time !
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book by 2009 Nobel Prize winner is well worth reading to obtain an ever heightening feel as to what it must have been like in Ceaucescu's Romania especially if as in the case of Muller herself you were a part of a minority (especially the German minority. The book is easy to read as it is divided into short 'paragraph' like chapters, I think the most impressive bit for me, was a meeting in college to deselect from the Party a student who had committed suicide, and the unilateral need to be counted on the right side. How would I have responded in a similar position, is a very difficult question to answer.The Land of Green Plums
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wooden Melons & Tin Sheep.
I wasn't too sure about this book to begin with but I soldiered on with it & came to love it by the end. I think it's a book that takes time to sink in. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Lorna
1.0 out of 5 stars
What have I missed about the Nobel Prize winning quality of this...
The theme of the novel is the miasma of the ever-present fear that people felt in Ceauºescu's Romania, particularly the approximately eighteen year old narrator and the three young... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Ralph Blumenau
5.0 out of 5 stars
Language and Control
A book of stunning description, metaphor and a study how language can be and is used to control individuals and populations. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Hanno
2.0 out of 5 stars
What a load of plums
Some books are experimental, allegorical, grim and yet I can read them. This isn't one of them. Situations you can't relate to, not much of an effort to anchor the reader, no... Read more
Published on 16 Sep 2010 by raphael1
1.0 out of 5 stars
Very confusing read
I'm currently reading this book and am at page 75. For the most part I have no idea what the author is referring to. Her use of imagery and metaphors is utterly confusing. Read more
Published on 5 Aug 2010 by James Twain
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Read
I could not put this book down. Herta Muller at the height of her powers.
Published on 18 April 2010 by Colin Nicholson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Astounding, atmospheric portrait of Romanian Communist life
The Land of Green Plums follows in the tradition of books like Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being in capturing the subtle, yet brutal psychological torments that build up... Read more
Published on 3 Jan 2010 by Daniel Bor
3.0 out of 5 stars
confusing
Before reading this book I had little knowledge of Ceausescu's dictatorship; this was one of the reasons I in fact read it. Read more
Published on 15 July 2004 by "hannahk63"
1.0 out of 5 stars
Poor
Prose that the author uses is very poor and leaves the reader disengaged with the subject she is trying to portray. Read more
Published on 9 Sep 2002 by "markdenes"
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful... Astonishing
This novel is one of the most powerful ones I have ever read. The author has a wonderful way of making us feel for the characters, and it is written in such a compassionate and... Read more
Published on 20 May 1998
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