The Bird World of Auschwitz
Novel
A novel about surviving in inhuman times and a highly sophisticated portrait of two men
When prisoner Marek is selected by the concentration camp guard Hans Grote to accompany him on birdspotting trips into the surrounding countryside and to sketch the different species, he imagines that freedom is close at hand. But he is mistaken. In order to survive, he will have to learn to keep a tight rein on his thoughts: drawing, preparing animal corpses, not swimming across the Vistula. Smelling the stench of the crematorium, hearing the women sing lullabies on the way to the gas chambers, never asking questions. And: never getting ill. A deeply disturbing profile of two men who take refuge in a world of their own making as a means of surviving the unimaginable horrors of the concentration camp. The appalling daily events, described tersely, appear to leave the protagonists unmoved, yet they shock us to the core of our very being.
Arno Surminski was born in Eastern Prussia in 1934. Following his family’s expulsion, he grew up in Trittau, Schleswig Holstein. Surminski made a name for himself with short stories and novels which focus primarily on the fate of German displaced persons and their efforts to settle in post-war Germany. The winner of many literary awards lives and works in Hamburg.
A novel about surviving in inhuman times and a highly sophisticated portrait of two men
When prisoner Marek is selected by the concentration camp guard Hans Grote to accompany him on birdspotting trips into the surrounding countryside and to sketch the different species, he imagines that freedom is close at hand. But he is mistaken. In order to survive, he will have to learn to keep a tight rein on his thoughts: drawing, preparing animal corpses, not swimming across the Vistula. Smelling the stench of the crematorium, hearing the women sing lullabies on the way to the gas chambers, never asking questions. And: never getting ill. A deeply disturbing profile of two men who take refuge in a world of their own making as a means of surviving the unimaginable horrors of the concentration camp. The appalling daily events, described tersely, appear to leave the protagonists unmoved, yet they shock us to the core of our very being.
Arno Surminski was born in Eastern Prussia in 1934. Following his family’s expulsion, he grew up in Trittau, Schleswig Holstein. Surminski made a name for himself with short stories and novels which focus primarily on the fate of German displaced persons and their efforts to settle in post-war Germany. The winner of many literary awards lives and works in Hamburg.
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