<TitleType>01</TitleType> <TitleText>The Boxer</TitleText> <Subtitle>A Novel</Subtitle>

Arcade Publishing 20100903 eng

GCDS-9781559706155 03 01 Arcade Publishing 01 GCOI 55970100980840 02 1559706155 03 9781559706155 15 9781559706155 BB <TitleType>01</TitleType> <TitleText>The Boxer</TitleText> <Subtitle>A Novel</Subtitle> 1 A01 Jurek Becker 007 05 1937 008 05 1997 Jurek Becker was born in Lódz, Poland. The exact date of his birth is unknown, because, while the family was living in the Lódz ghetto, his father made him out to be older in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent him from being deported. From 1939 until 1945, Jurek Becker was a prisoner in the concentration camps of Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen. After the war, Becker's father took him to East Berlin, where they were among few surviving Jews who chose to stay in Germany. An acclaimed screen-writer and novelist, Becker won several literary prizes including the Heinrich-Mann and the Charles Veillon Prizes for Jacob the Liar.He died in 1997. 2 B06 ger Alessandra Bastagli 007 05 1975 01 eng 02 ger 256 01 When Jurek Becker's Jacob the Liarwas published twenty-five years after world War II, it was hailed worldwide as the most remarkable novel of he Holocaust ever written in Germany. It is, said the Times Literary Supplement,"a novel about the martyrdom of Europe's Jews that has never been surpassed. . . . It does for the victims of the Shoah what Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovichdoes for those of the gulag."In this follow-up work to Jacob the Liar,Becker tells the story of a man named Aron Blank, tracing his life from his release from a concentration camp in the summer of 1945 through the next twenty or so years. Living in a ghetto at the start of the war, Aron had lost his wife--who one day was arrested by the Nazis. In desperation, he turned over his two-year-old son, Mark, for safekeeping to a neighbor just before he was deported. Now, having survived the war, Aron sets out, with the help of an American relief organization, to find his son. He finally tracks down, in a hospital for young survivors, a child named Mark who is the same age as his son, though oddly the boy bears a different last name. Convinced nonetheless that he has found his Mark, Aron takes him home to East Berlin and does his best to rebuild a normal life for them both, working first in the black market, then as a Russian interpreter.Decades later, after Mark has left home, subsequently emigrated to Israel, and was presumably killed in the Six-Day War, Aron relates the story of his life to a young interviewer. Despite Aron's understandable cynicism, the interviewer ultimately becomes an irreplaceable companion in Aron's self-inflicted solitude, a final bridge to the world.Written with the understated elegance that brought Jurek Becker worldwide acclaim, this is a rare portrait of Jewish life in postwar Germany and a profoundly human story of survival, friendship, and fatherly love. 02 The powerful, deeply moving story of a man's search for his son in the aftermath of the Holocaust, written with the understated elegance that brought Jurek Becker worldwide acclaim. 08 Narrated with Kafkaesque flatness and developed with a Beckettian obsessiveness, the book is a remarkably subtle and artfully combative study of post-traumatic persistence. It's impossible to understand why it has not been translated before now. Tom LeClair Book Magazine 08 Remarkable. . . . Tersely, yet vividly, Becker conveys how his characters feel, and why. In their unpretentious, plain-spoken exchanges, the large questions are epitomized and crystallized with admirable economy and expressiveness. Restrained, yet quietly intense, The Boxerhas a veracity and scrupulousness that place it in a class of its own. Merle Rubin L.A. Times 08 As in Becker's acclaimed first novel Jacob the Liar,lies and obfuscation working as life-savers is a central theme of The Boxer.Aron tells his tale, but never lets the reader into his confidence. He draws you into his story even as he tries to repel you with his rude behavior. A maze of contradictions, Aron is, "glad that no one threatens his seclusion, which is his greatest misery." I recommend that you read this compelling book and discover Aron's mysteries for yourself. Georgia Atkin The Pittsburg Jewish Chronicle 08 Through deceptively simple prose, grief is given a voice . . . banter between Aron and his interviewer brings moments of comedy and satire, underpinned with a certain ineffable inertia as Aron hides his thoughts and primary reactions . . . for this superb piece, Jurek Becker should earn five Stars of David. Lynne Zielinski The Huntsville Times 08 Jurek Becker paints an eloquent account of survival, sacrifice, fatherly love, and friendship in postwar Germany. . . . An overpowering story mixed with a gripping social commentary. Mary DeCicco Hackensack Sunday Record 08 A gifted German voice. Kirkus Reviews 08 Remarkable trauma inherent in the narrative. Publishers Weekly 08 Highly recommended reading. Library Bookwatch 08 A fascinating, very readable and elegantly told tale, written in the best tradition of Kafka. Corinna Lothar Washington Times 08 It is difficult, in the shadow of great tragedy, to write a novel that attends constantly to the everyday. It is difficult to write a novel that undermines the drama and suspense in the name of domestic realism. It is difficult to write the story of a victim and refrain from redemption or epiphany. With The Boxer Jurek Becker has attempted all of this, and in so doing has attempted to prove that even a distant story can be a necessary one. The Washington Post 08 To summarize the plot of Jurek Becker's wrenching novel would be to trivialize the emotional power of the author's depiction of Jewish life in postwar Germany, as described by Aron Blank, who survived the Holocaust and finds his son years later. Here is a notable sequel to Mr. Becker's classic Jacob the Liar. Dallas Morning News 08 This is a sober but heartening book describing...what human nature can endure and transcend. 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