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Product Description
John le Carré
‘Elusive, wholly original and moving’
Review
'A dense, elusive, wholly original and moving novel' John le Carre 'Nella Bielski writes out of the experience of obstruction, exile and betrayal (both personal and political), but the tone is hopeful and humane' Hermione Lee 'A rare combination of affection for everything, of acceptance and intelligence' Hilary Bailey 'Exquisite' Observer
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
THE YEAR IS '42 is excellently translated into English by John Berger and Lisa Appignanesi. It is in three sections; the first takes place in Nazi-occupied Paris, the second in Saxony, the third in and around Nazi-occupied Kiev. Bieski is equally at home in her evocation of all three places. The novel is set against a dark background, but it is imbued with great tenderness and hope. Nella Bielski devotes only a few paragraphs to the Shoah itself. Her implied attitude to it is probably that of Katia, the Ukrainian doctor who is the central figure in the last section and who can say nothing about the many horrors she has lived through except: 'Words are poor and we are poorer still.' Katia is a gifted healer, and there is something healing about the novel itself. Love and healing, Bielski seems to be saying, can take place in many unexpected ways, and in the most unlikely situations. The novel follows an unexpected but convincing trajectory. In the first chapter we see Karl Bazinger, an aristocratic German officer, feeling dissatisfied with his privileged life in Nazi-occupied Paris; in the final chapter, we see him finding an expected peace of spirit on the Eastern Front. In the first chapters we see him `in the claws of a French teenager'; in the last chapters we see him in the healing hands of the middle-aged Katia.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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8 reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Captivating
22 Dec 2004
Format:Hardcover
Nella Bielski's new novel will be noted for its ingenious plotting, concision of style, and use of historical scenes. But just as a life isn't a only series of discrete events but also a not completely comprehended network of perceptions, notions and emotions, this novel adds up to much more than its wonderfully handled novelistic elements. In this story, the historical and political forces of Europe, mainly during World War II, play upon the characters, moving them about; the characters push back with what is in their nature. It is their natures that are inevitable, not their fates. The same holds true for the voice telling this story. It withholds from us the too easy gratifications of character analysis and categorization; it offers the more rich pleasures of the feeling of experience, with its limitations and exertions. I approached this novel mainly because John Berger co-translated it -- and if you're familiar with his remarkable essays and novels, you'll also enjoy sensing his hand at work here.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Voilà un grand tour de force!
21 Dec 2004
Format:Hardcover
This compact immersion into the souls of three principal characters struggling in the most hellish time of a still living generation leaves you bewildered that its author is simply too young to have lived these moments. You feel the sweat under the covers of a feverish student while her grandparents debate who can enter her room, you see the look of a bartender that lingers too long on a pair of his customers, you worry at a school boy's simple remark. It is the intensity of this environment that makes every moment a mystery. It is the deftness of the narrative voice which modulates with every character it describes that makes your heart pound when a door closes, not in the quiet of your home, but only in the narration.
It is so remarkable a book, that I am going to dust off the French dictionary which hides somewhere in our home, and tackle the work in the language in which it was written.
Merci bien Madam. Grace a vous, nous vivons un grand moment!
Alan Grosbard
It is so remarkable a book, that I am going to dust off the French dictionary which hides somewhere in our home, and tackle the work in the language in which it was written.
Merci bien Madam. Grace a vous, nous vivons un grand moment!
Alan Grosbard
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Another Sector Heard From
13 Nov 2005
Format:Hardcover
This novel is beautifully done. I immediately read it twice through. It's short and slightly elliptical. The first main character is a loyal German Army officer who fought in WW I and comes to hate and fear the Nazis. The second main character is a Ukranian pediatrician who was born in the old regime and lives through the 1917 revolution, its forward looking first fifteen years and then the repressions and horrors of the Stalin years. None of the above, however, really tells you what the novel is about because it's about the interior as well as the exterior life of the main characters.
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