ARCH OF TRIUMPHIt is 1939. Despite a law banning him from performing surgery, Ravic—a German doctor and refugee living in Paris—has been treating some of the city's most elite citizens for two years on the behalf of two less-than-skillful French physicians.Forbidden to return to his own country, and dodging the everyday dangers of jail and deportation, Ravic manages to hang on—all the while searching for the Nazi who tortured him back in Germany. And though he's given up on the possibility of love, life has a curious way of taking a turn for the romantic, even during the worst of times. . . .
Het lot van twee twaalfjarige jongens en hun verwitwede moeders in de naoorlogse tijd. De twee schoolvrienden Heinrich en Martin hebben hun vaders, die in de oorlog zijn omgekomen, nooit gekend. Heinrich groeit op in benarde omstandigheden. Veel te vroeg wordt hij in de wereld van volwassenen geplaatst en moet hij verantwoordelijkheid dragen. Zijn vriend Martin kent geen financiële nood, maar vermoedt dat er iets ontbreekt in het leven van zijn moeder, ondanks hun welvaart. Heinrich Böll beschrijft op uiterst invoelende wijze de problemen en zorgen van deze twee jongens, die ook moeten omgaan met de moeilijkheden van de beginnende puberteit. Hun en hun moeders lotgevallen staan symbool voor de door de oorlog getroebleerde generatie.
Now in a new translation, an imaginative, darkly radiant fable about a pair of brothers, formerly warriors, whose idyll is shattered by an encroaching fascistic force. Set in a world of its own, Ernst Jünger’s On the Marble Cliffs is both a mesmerizing work of fantasy and an allegory of the advent of fascism. The narrator of the book and his brother, Otho, live in an ancient house carved out of the great marble cliffs that overlook the Marina, a great and beautiful lake that is surrounded by a peaceable land of ancient cities and temples and flourishing vineyards. To the north of the cliffs are the grasslands of the Campagna, occupied by herders. North of that, the great forest begins. There the brutal Head Forester rules, abetted by the warrior bands of the Mauretanians. The brothers have seen all too much of war. Their youth was consumed in fighting. Now they have resolved to live quietly, studying botany, adding to their herbarium, consulting the books in their library, involving themselves in the timeless pursuit of knowledge. However, rumors of dark deeds begin to reach them in their sanctuary. Agents of the Head Forester are infiltrating the peaceful provinces he views with contempt, while peace itself, it seems, may only be a mask for heedlessness. Tess Lewis’s new translation of Jünger’s sinister fable of 1939 brings out all of this legendary book’s dark luster.
