The Hothouse

The Hothouse

by Michael Hofmann (Introduction), WolfgangKoeppen (Author)

Synopsis

One of the most important and, in the English-speaking world, most neglected of German writers, Koeppen was a fierce, uncompromising critic of post-war German complacency. His novels were like a slap in the face to a Federal Republic that preferred to make money and forget about the recent past of genocide and oppression. The Hothouse refers to the city of Bonn, with its warm damp climate, but it also refers to the political environment of the temporary capital of divided Germany, where politics in the 1950s was about compromises and half measures. The central character, Keetenheuve, is an idealistic politician-intellectual who has returned from voluntary exile during the Nazi period. Now his idealism becomes a trap for him, as he attempts to break with the past and persuade his colleagues to embrace a radical rejection of militarism. The novel traces the final two days in the life of this depressed, isolated man.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 224
Publisher: Granta Books
Published: 11 Apr 2002

ISBN 10: 1862075093
ISBN 13: 9781862075092
Book Overview: Marketing: Proof mailing to trade and media. (Temporary)

Media Reviews
'In his introduction, Hofmann says no book he has translated has given him more pleasure to work on than Koeppen's novels. And none of Hofmann's translations have given me greater pleasure to read than The Hothouse.' Iain Bamforth, New York Times
Author Bio
Wolfgang Koeppen was born in 1906 and died ninety years later in Munich. A journalist for left-wing papers in Weimar Berlin, he spent the early Nazi period in the Netherlands, returning in the war years to work for the film company that produced Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis'. He published five novels, two in the 1930s and three in the 1950s. Michael Hofmann was awarded the PEN/Book-of-the-month Club Prize for translation.