Works of Xie Hang Grass

Author: (German) Grass, translated by Cai Hongjun
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-01-01
Features: This is a new work by Grass released after he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999. It received widespread acclaim upon its release, topped major bestseller lists for several months, and sold 250,000 copies within two weeks. The novel is based on a real historical event: on January 30, 1945, the German luxury liner Gustloff, carrying over 10,000 refugees and soldiers, set sail from Gdansk toward the west. However, that same night, it was sunk by torpedoes fired by a Soviet submarine in the Baltic Sea, with nearly 10,000 escapees perishing at the bottom, including over 4,000 children! The novel uses a combination of realism and fiction to reveal the perpetrators of that war, who brought heavy disasters to other countries while inflicting endless suffering on their own people. This is a maritime disaster even more heart-wrenching than the Titanic. The fictional story in the book is also brutal: Thura, pregnant and only 17, boarded the Gustloff. Around nine o'clock at night, a violent and several fierce explosions jolted her from her sleep. Fortunately, she was rescued onto a German ship. As the liner sank and the bodies of thousands of children and women floated up and down in the icy sea, her son Paul was born. After being rescued, she fled with her newborn in her arms, eventually settling in Zemlin, East Germany, and becoming a worker. Paul grew up to be a journalist, escaped to West Germany, and after experiencing marriage, having children, and family divorce, he became long-term estranged from his son Konrad. It wasn't until German reunification that Konrad met his grandmother. The grandmother adored him and often told him about her past, which led him to develop radical beliefs. He created a neo-Nazi website and, in the end, shot and killed a Jewish young man named David, a fellow internet user.
This is a new work by Grass released after he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999. It received widespread acclaim upon its release, topped major bestseller lists for several months, and sold 250,000 copies within two weeks. The novel is based on a real historical event: on January 30, 1945, the German luxury liner Gustloff, carrying over 10,000 refugees and soldiers, set sail from Gdansk toward the west. However, that same night, it was sunk by torpedoes fired by a Soviet submarine in the Baltic Sea, with nearly 10,000 escapees perishing at the bottom, including over 4,000 children! The novel uses a combination of realism and fiction to reveal the perpetrators of that war, who brought heavy disasters to other countries while inflicting endless suffering on their own people. This is a maritime disaster even more heart-wrenching than the Titanic. The fictional story in the book is also brutal: Thura, pregnant and only 17, boarded the Gustloff. Around nine o'clock at night, a violent and several fierce explosions jolted her from her sleep. Fortunately, she was rescued onto a German ship. As the liner sank and the bodies of thousands of children and women floated up and down in the icy sea, her son Paul was born. After being rescued, she fled with her newborn in her arms, eventually settling in Zemlin, East Germany, and becoming a worker. Paul grew up to be a journalist, escaped to West Germany, and after experiencing marriage, having children, and family divorce, he became long-term estranged from his son Konrad. It wasn't until German reunification that Konrad met his grandmother. The grandmother adored him and often told him about her past, which led him to develop radical beliefs. He created a neo-Nazi website and, in the end, shot and killed a Jewish young man named David, a fellow internet user.
German media described Grass as using heart-stirring prose to take readers back to that terrifying history and its impact, particularly on a special group of people.