The silent angel
Author:
Publisher:
St. Martin's Press
Publication Date:
1994
Language:
English
Description
The Silent Angel is a haunting love story set amid the ruins of a bombed-out city, which is in fact Cologne but has been compared by the critics today to destroyed Sarajevo, Beirut, and Belfast. Suppressed in Germany for over forty-one years, the book has quickly become a major literary event and a bestseller in Europe, for it was Nobel laureate Heinrich Boll's first book, a work that was originally judged too strong for German readers still suffering from the ravages of war.
The story begins with the return of a hardened and cynical soldier, Hans Schnitzler, who quickly falls into a dangerous web of financial and personal intrigues as he searches for the widow of a comrade. He meets Regina Unger, another war widow who has just lost her baby, and their ensuing love story, set among the ruins of the city, will force readers to recall Nathan and Sophie in William Styron's Sophie's Choice. Yet Boll's characters reach a completely different ending, for in Regina and in his reexposure to the church, Hans Schnitzler finds a redemptive purpose for living, and his psychic and physical recovery take on heightened meaning as he wanders through the "naked destruction, desolate and terribly empty, as if the breath of the bomb still hung in the air."
Fans of Boll's classic works and new readers alike will be startled by the power of the novel's language, particularly by Boll's use of irony and imagery. For the remarkable language for this book, so ably translated by Breon Mitchell, echoes the power of earlier German writers like Franz Kafka and Max Brod yet also serves as the first harbinger of a generation of postwar literature that was still to come.
The story begins with the return of a hardened and cynical soldier, Hans Schnitzler, who quickly falls into a dangerous web of financial and personal intrigues as he searches for the widow of a comrade. He meets Regina Unger, another war widow who has just lost her baby, and their ensuing love story, set among the ruins of the city, will force readers to recall Nathan and Sophie in William Styron's Sophie's Choice. Yet Boll's characters reach a completely different ending, for in Regina and in his reexposure to the church, Hans Schnitzler finds a redemptive purpose for living, and his psychic and physical recovery take on heightened meaning as he wanders through the "naked destruction, desolate and terribly empty, as if the breath of the bomb still hung in the air."
Fans of Boll's classic works and new readers alike will be startled by the power of the novel's language, particularly by Boll's use of irony and imagery. For the remarkable language for this book, so ably translated by Breon Mitchell, echoes the power of earlier German writers like Franz Kafka and Max Brod yet also serves as the first harbinger of a generation of postwar literature that was still to come.
More Details
Contributors:
ISBN:
9780312110642
Staff View
QR Code
Grouping Information
Grouped Work ID | 954d19a4-ab8b-4424-9121-8ea5c1006d79 |
---|---|
Grouping Title | silent angel |
Grouping Author | heinrich boll |
Grouping Category | book |
Grouping Language | English (eng) |
Last Grouping Update | 2025-01-07 12:30:56PM |
Last Indexed | 2025-01-24 04:46:45AM |
Solr Fields
accelerated_reader_point_value
0
accelerated_reader_reading_level
0
auth_author2
Mitchell, Breon
author
Böll, Heinrich, 1917-1985
author2-role
Mitchell, Breon
author_display
Böll, Heinrich
available_at_madelineisland
Madeline Island Public Library
detailed_location_madelineisland
Madeline Island Adult Fiction
display_description
format_category_madelineisland
Books
format_madelineisland
Book
id
954d19a4-ab8b-4424-9121-8ea5c1006d79
isbn
9780312110642
itype_madelineisland
BOOK - HARDCOVER
last_indexed
2025-01-24T10:46:45.046Z
lexile_score
-1
literary_form
Fiction
literary_form_full
Fiction
local_callnumber_madelineisland
F BOL
owning_library_madelineisland
Madeline Island Public Library
owning_location_madelineisland
Madeline Island Public Library
primary_isbn
9780312110642
publishDate
1994
publisher
St. Martin's Press
recordtype
grouped_work
subject_facet
Reconstruction (1939-1951) -- Fiction
War fiction
War fiction
title_display
The silent angel
title_full
The silent angel / Heinrich Boll ; translated by Breon Mitchell
title_short
The silent angel
topic_facet
Reconstruction (1939-1951)
Solr Details Tables
item_details
Bib Id | Item Id | Shelf Location | Call Num | Format | Format Category | Num Copies | Is Order Item | Is eContent | eContent Source | eContent URL | Detailed Status | Last Checkin | Location |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ils:.b1106500x | .i20022359 | Madeline Island Adult Fiction | F BOL | 1 | false | false | Available | Dec 08, 2016 | mific |
record_details
Bib Id | Format | Format Category | Edition | Language | Publisher | Publication Date | Physical Description | Abridged |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ils:.b1106500x | Book | Books | English | St. Martin's Press | 1994 | viii, 181 pages ; 22 cm |
scoping_details_madelineisland
Bib Id | Item Id | Grouped Status | Status | Locally Owned | Available | Holdable | Bookable | In Library Use Only | Library Owned | Is Home Pick Up Only | Holdable PTypes | Bookable PTypes | Home Pick Up PTypes | Local Url |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ils:.b1106500x | .i20022359 | On Shelf | Available | false | true | true | false | false | true | false | 9999 |