Kaltenburg
Roman
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- CHF 14.00
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- CHF 14.00
Beschreibung des Verlags
Wer ist Kaltenburg? Ein Ornithologe und Verhaltensforscher, der nach dem Krieg in Dresden ein Forschungsinstitut aufbaut. Ein Exzentriker, der den Dienstwagen samt Stasi-Chauffeur stehen lässt und Motorrad fährt. Für Hermann Funk, der seine Eltern in der Dresdner Bombennacht verlor, wird er zum Ziehvater. Als alter Mann erinnert sich Funk: an die Gründung des Institutes und der DDR, an Kaltenburgs plötzliches Verschwinden nach dem Mauerbau, an ein möglicherweise dunkles Kapitel in dessen Vergangenheit. Vor dem Hintergrund von einem halben Jahrhundert DDR-Geschichte erzählt Marcel Beyer in seinem hochgelobten Roman meisterlich von menschlichen Lebensläufen.
Joseph-Breitbach-Preis 2008
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This mesmerizing foray into postwar Germany by celebrated author Beyer (Spies) is both a singularly researched work of historical fiction (with an ornithological bent), and a postmodern examination of the nature of memory. Falling under the wing of the famed ornithologist Ludwig Kaltenburg as a boy, Hermann Funk is randomly contacted years after his mentor's death by translator Katharina Fischer, leading Funk to dissect the puzzle of Kaltenburg's existence in East Germany as well as a mysterious period during WWII when the naturalist was a member of the Nazi party. Modeled after the controversial ethologist Konrad Lorenz, godfather of modern behavioral science, the towering figure of Kaltenburg is only one compelling character in Beyer's cast. As Kaltenburg's life intersects with those of other brilliant misfits, like artist Martin Spengler and Funk's Proust-obsessed wife, Klara, who retreats into complicated literary fabrications at social occasions, Beyer paints an engrossing and terrifying picture of Dresden during the war and later under the Communist yoke. Yet it is Beyer's complex interpolation of daily memories sometimes fused or distorted in a Proustian vein complete with highly detailed ornithological observations that give this work its exquisite flavor.
