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6:30 PM
Helden wie wir
Book club | Book club
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Goethe-Institut Montreal, Montreal
- Language German
- Price Free admittance - RSVP required
Our German book club continues this fall. In conjunction with our film programming, which will be focusing on the 1990s, we’ve chosen a novel from the same decade, “Helden wie wir” from Thomas Brussig, and invite you to join us for a discussion in German.
Two copies (ebook and audiobook) are available in our digital library, Onleihe. (Find here how to register to Onleihe.)
About the novel:
Provocative and hilarious, Heroes Like Us was the first novel to comment on the downfall of East Germany by an author who had grown up with the Berlin Wall. Klaus Uhltzscht, born in 1968 in East Germany, grows up across the street from the Ministry of State Security, and he is inspired early on to do his share to win the Cold War. Naturally he joins the Secret Police, but his glorious career as an international agent never materializes. Instead, he spends countless hours keeping his fellow citizens under close surveillance -- never quite sure what he is looking for. Frustrated on all counts, Klaus's life is changed only when a strange accident in the fall of 1989 dramatically alters the size of his penis. (us.macmillan.com)
About the author:
Thomas Brussig is the author of seven novels, including Wie es leuchtet and Helden wie wir (Heroes Like Us, FSG, 1997). As a screenwriter, he worked with Edgar Reitz on his Heimat epic. Born in East Berlin, Brussig now divides his time between Berlin and Mecklenburg. (us.macmillan.com)
About our moderator:
Sebastian Döderlein studied French, history and German as a foreign language in Cologne and Bonn and then received his doctorate from Concordia University Montreal with a thesis on the end of the First World War in the German-French border region. He has been Professor of German Language and Culture at the Université du Québec à Montréal since 2021.
In his free time, he enjoys reading historical novels and short stories that deal with the many facets of German society.
Two copies (ebook and audiobook) are available in our digital library, Onleihe. (Find here how to register to Onleihe.)
About the novel:
Provocative and hilarious, Heroes Like Us was the first novel to comment on the downfall of East Germany by an author who had grown up with the Berlin Wall. Klaus Uhltzscht, born in 1968 in East Germany, grows up across the street from the Ministry of State Security, and he is inspired early on to do his share to win the Cold War. Naturally he joins the Secret Police, but his glorious career as an international agent never materializes. Instead, he spends countless hours keeping his fellow citizens under close surveillance -- never quite sure what he is looking for. Frustrated on all counts, Klaus's life is changed only when a strange accident in the fall of 1989 dramatically alters the size of his penis. (us.macmillan.com)
About the author:
Thomas Brussig is the author of seven novels, including Wie es leuchtet and Helden wie wir (Heroes Like Us, FSG, 1997). As a screenwriter, he worked with Edgar Reitz on his Heimat epic. Born in East Berlin, Brussig now divides his time between Berlin and Mecklenburg. (us.macmillan.com)
About our moderator:
Sebastian Döderlein studied French, history and German as a foreign language in Cologne and Bonn and then received his doctorate from Concordia University Montreal with a thesis on the end of the First World War in the German-French border region. He has been Professor of German Language and Culture at the Université du Québec à Montréal since 2021.
In his free time, he enjoys reading historical novels and short stories that deal with the many facets of German society.
Location
Goethe-Institut Montreal
1626 boul. St-Laurent
Bureau 100
Montreal H2X 2T1
Kanada
1626 boul. St-Laurent
Bureau 100
Montreal H2X 2T1
Kanada