By
– August 31, 2011
On the shores of a Brandenburg lake stands a house that weathers not only the tumultuous changes in seasons but also the tempestuous changes of occupants over the course of much of the 20th century. In her riveting new novel, brilliantly translated by Susan Bernofsky, Erpenbeck (The Book of Words) conducts us on a journey through the changes in t he life of the house by weaving together the lives of its twelve different inhabitants, who range from the original occupants, a farmer and his four daughters, to a nameless girl being hidden from the Nazis, a Red Army Officer, and a relative of the original occupants. She intersperses each tale with the ongoing story of the house’s gardener, who is the one constant occupant of the property. When he leaves, never to be seen again, the last occupant comes to the house to close it up and prepare it for demolition. In the end, much like the lives of those who have lived in it, the house is torn down, piece by piece, and the land returns, ever so briefly, to the primeval forest out of which it grew. Bernofsky’s translation vividly captures the rhythm of Erpenbeck’s original and allows us to experience this stunning parable of change and brevity in all its beauty and wonder.
Henry L. Carrigan, Jr. writes about books for Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, BookPage, and ForeWord. He has written for numerous newspapers including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Charlotte Observer, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, The Orlando Sentinel, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Washington Post Book World.