- Hardcover: 400 pages
- Publisher: The Harvill Press (29 Jan 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1843431580
- ISBN-13: 978-1843431589
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.6 x 4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,473,166 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Snowleg
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"Already my bet for this year's Booker Prize. A superbly achieved and moving novel."
--Giles Fodden, "Guardian"
"Snowleg is his finest book yet. Beautifully written, rich in character, it displays all the courage for which its hero so desperately wants to be recognized."
--"Economist"
"This novel is one of the finest attempts in English to convey something of two very strange places which no longer appear on the map of Europe... Shakespeare has told a very skillful story."
--"Evening Standard" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
--Giles Fodden, "Guardian"
"Snowleg is his finest book yet. Beautifully written, rich in character, it displays all the courage for which its hero so desperately wants to be recognized."
--"Economist"
"This novel is one of the finest attempts in English to convey something of two very strange places which no longer appear on the map of Europe... Shakespeare has told a very skillful story."
--"Evening Standard" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Book Description
Keynote/Publisher Comment'Already my bet for this year's Booker Prize. A superbly achieved and moving novel' Giles Foden
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A name like the author's is a heavy burden, and, as far as style goes, this Shakespeare here does quite well. His problem is how to organise a convincing plot, and, sad to say, this is where he fails, at least in the long run. At the beginning his story is really thrilling and quite unusual for a British author. On his 16th birthday young hero Peter Hithersay finds out, that his beloved father is not his biological one, as his mother had a one-night-stand with a German prisoner on the run in Leipzig in the GDR. From that moment Peter feels German, takes German language courses at his rather posh school and endures being mobbed for his German roots by his fellow students. He then studies medicine in Hamburg and gets the chance to go to Leipzig with a student drama group. Here he hopes to find out more about his father. Instead he falls in love with a girl called Snjolaug, a name that sounds to him like Snowleg. She takes him to the farewell party of her brother, who has finally been allowed to leave the GDR. Snowleg finds out, that this also means her personal future is in shambles. So after they spend the night together in a Schrebergarten datscha, she asks Peter to smuggle her out of the country. Although he first is glad about that, he then has second thoughts and in the end denies knowing her when confronted with her at an official reception. And now his and the reader's torment begins. Shakespeare is neither really interested in his hero's quest to find Snowleg again, nor in the dire situation he has left her in. What we hear about the infamous methods of the Stasi is just cheap sensationalism, nothing new or convincing. Like Housseini's hero in "The Kiterunner" Peter keeps moaning on and on about his fatal mistake. And, there are just one too many coincidences in the plot.
21 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
In one of the most elegantly written and carefully constructed love stories in recent memory, Nicholas Shakespeare introduces Peter Hithersay, who, on his sixteenth birthday, learns that "Daddy" is not his father. In Leipzig, East Germany, for a vocal competition, his mother had met and loved his biological father very briefly, only to see him arrested, and taken away forever. Curious about Germany, Peter spends his gap year in Hamburg and applies for and is accepted to its medical school, where he lives for the next six years. Eventually, Peter makes a trip to Leipzig, where he, now twenty-two, falls passionately in love with a young East German, whose Icelandic nickname, "Snjolaug," sounds to him like "Snowleg." When he has to leave, he is unable to forget her.
Peter's search for Snowleg, and secondarily, for his father, is told through flashbacks and memories, and the nature of their relationship unfolds in detail. The role of the secret police in their separation and the conflicts between the original ideal of communism and its later implementation are shown through Uwe and Hesse, two secret policemen, who appear in the prologue and in the conclusion and provide fresh perspective on the action, elevating this novel above the typical love story.
The vibrancy of Shakespeare's prose makes every page of this novel a delight to read. Filled with irony and, often, humor, the dialogue comes alive. Unforgettable descriptions, especially of the darkness, cold, and soot in Leipzig, reveal feelings as well as convey information. To Peter, listening to the radio, a love song "had red eyes and ran furtively across his mind...It was a rat dressed up as a promise." Repeating motifs--a van with a fish painted on it, a dying deer, the story of Sir Bedevere, a fur coat, and the bones of a muskrat--echo throughout the novel and connect scenes symbolically. Like most romances, the story relies on coincidence and fortuitous accident, but Shakespeare's writing is so strong and the story is so exciting that even the most jaded reader will willingly accept the implausibilities. Mary Whipple
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A story of love and longing which takes us into Eastern Germany past and present.
In common with other reviewers I found Shakespeare very convincing at evoking atmosphere and a sense of time and place. Less convincing, however, is the manner in which every loose end is tied up all too neatly at the end.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Not satisfactory
The plot is definitely far-fetched, none of the characters is very convincing and they all look shallow (except Peter, that is). Read more
Published 19 months ago by A. Costa
Enjoyable tale of long lost love...
The concept of lost love isn't anything new and you can probably work out how it will end, but you're still likely to be drawn into the intricate stories of the main... Read more
Published on 29 Jan 2007 by BB999
Could not appreciate this book.
Despite the praise that has been heaped on this book, I can't say that I liked it much. The author seems well acquainted with East Germany both before and after reunification, and... Read more
Published on 17 Mar 2005 by Ralph Blumenau
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