Book Club
German Book Club Reads Katja Petrowskaja

05/22/18
6:00pm
Goethe-Institut New York

At the May German Book Club meeting we will discuss Katja Petrowskaja's Vielleicht Esther (Suhrkamp, €10,00  ISBN 9783518465967).

Was the father’s grandmother, the only one in the family who stayed behind in 1941 in in occupied Kiev, really named Esther? Who heard the Yiddish word that she mentioned discretely to the German soldiers on the street? And who was looking from the window as the soldiers—“in mindless routine”—shot the Babushka to death?

The unfinished family history that Katja Petrowskaja tells in short chapters could have become a tragic novel of huge dimensions. But instead of expanding this violent material into something epic, the author writes about her visits to the scenes of these events, reflecting on a fragmented and traumatized century and bringing to light family figures who threaten to drift into obscurity.

Kindly RSVP via email to library-newyork@goethe.de if you plan to attend.