Pigeon in the Grass

Tauben im Gras

✦Humans wandering in nothingness are nothing more than pigeons circling aimlessly on the grass.
✦The collapse of civilization, class turmoil, racial divisions, and the montage of fate reflect the spiritual confusion of the post-war generation.
✧Nobel Prize winners Günter Grass and Nadine Gordimer unanimously praised ✧Wolfgang Köppen's representative novel, winner of the Büchner Prize, the highest award in German literature ✧Ulysses in post-war Germany, the opening chapter of the "Postwar Trilogy"
"The Dove in the Grass" is a representative novel by Wolfgang Koeppen, a renowned German writer and a legend of postwar German literature. Upon its publication in 1951, it immediately caused a sensation in the German literary world, being hailed by critics as "a novel that opened a new era." Together with Koeppen's subsequent works, "The Greenhouse" and "Death in Rome," it forms the celebrated "postwar trilogy," establishing Koeppen's status as a master of contemporary German literature and earning him numerous honors, including the Büchner Prize, the highest award in German literature.
The novel recounts a series of trivial events that unfolded on a single day in Munich in 1948. From multiple perspectives, it offers a panoramic portrayal of the fortuitous encounters between individuals from diverse nationalities, classes, and races. They are involuntarily drawn into a series of unsettling conflicts and unexpected events, their every effort to find meaning ultimately ending in failure as the day draws to a close. The author boldly employs stream-of-consciousness and symbolism, analyzing the complex mental states of ordinary people to offer a sobering examination and reflection on the chaotic and nihilistic social conditions of postwar Germany, and ultimately the plight of Western civilization as a whole.
【Editor's Recommendation】
1. A legend of postwar German literature, hailed by Nobel Prize winners Günter Grass and Nadine Gordimer, Wolfgang Köppen is a recipient of the Büchner Prize, the highest award in German literature. His representative works have been translated into Chinese for the first time. Beginning in 1951, he published his "Postwar Trilogy"—"Pigeons in the Grass," "Hothouse," and "Death in Rome," which, in a uniquely modernist style, offer a panoramic view of postwar German society and politics. The publication of the trilogy became a groundbreaking event in German literature, prompting Günter Grass, a renowned German writer and Nobel Prize winner, to cite Köppen as "the greatest contemporary German novelist."
2. The opening work of the "Postwar Trilogy," the "Ulysses" of postwar Germany. "The Dove in the Grass" is Wolfgang Koeppen's representative novel. Upon its publication in 1951, it immediately caused a sensation in the German literary world, being hailed by critics as "a novel that opened a new era" and "a milestone on the path to modern German literature." Together with "The Hothouse" and "Death in Rome," it forms the renowned "Postwar Trilogy," establishing Koeppen's status as a master in the history of contemporary German literature.
3. Rich in historical and social content and employing unique modernist techniques, the novel captures the spiritual emptiness of the postwar generation. Boldly employing stream-of-consciousness and symbolism, the novel transcends nationality, race, and class, offering a multi-perspective, panoramic portrait of the shattered and turbulent fates of countless individuals, whose search for meaning ultimately ends in failure within a single day. Its chilling poetic brushstrokes penetrate the ruins of postwar civilization, offering a profound reflection on the plight of Germany and the entire West.
【Expert Recommendation】
The greatest contemporary German novelist.
- Günter Grass Anyone who has not read this novel cannot consider himself to understand the literature after 1945.
—Marcel Lech-Ranicki

2023-10-01

北京联合出版公司

Lucida

360

9787559671691