Elie Wiesel and Jorge Semprun

In, 1995 the French-German culture TV programm arte airedoa conversation between Jorge Semprun and Elie Wiesel named "Entretien entre Elie Wiesel et Jorge Semprun". The show's transcript has been published in German (as "Schweigen is unmöglich" – silence is impossible) and French, but not in English.

Jorge Semprun was born in 1923. Prior to being arrested by the German Gestapo he was involved in the restistance against the Spanis Franco-regime as well as in the French Résistance against the German occupiers. Following his arrest in 1943 he was deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp, where he was involved in camp-intern resistance groups that helped liberating the camp in 1945. He spent most of his life in France, returning to his home country after the demise of Franco, serving as culture minister from 1988 to 1991.

Elie Wiesel was born into a Romanian orthodox jewish family in 1928. In 1944 he was deported to Ausschwitz with his entire family. Later he was deported to Buchenwald Consentration Camp where he was held captive until the camp was liberated by American troops on April 11th 1945.
liberated the camp on the 11.  April 1945.
After world war two he went to Strassbourg to learn french. After this he went to Paris to studied at
the Sorbonne. In 1955 he moved to the United States where he lives today. He is the author of a great number of books and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.

Semprun and Wiesel discuss similarities and differences of their expierence as prisoners in the German death camps. Both emphasize importance and difficulty of keeping and sharing the memories the horror they both have endured. Of course, a small book of a mere 40 pages can't serve  with a wide or deep view on the matter. Instead it provides a very personal conversation between two men who have endured barbarism and have dedicated their lives to the strive to never let such barbarism happen again.

Kenzaburo Oe - Price Stock

Kenzaburo Oe's novella "Shiiku" (engl. "The Catch or "Price Stock") was published and earned him Japan's most prestigious literature price, Akutagawa. The story is placed near the end of World War two on Shikoku, the island in Japan's south east Oe grew up on.
The story is narrated by a boy living in a small and isolated rural village. He lives with his father and younger brother in a small room in the community barn. His father makes their living through hunting. Due to the school being closed the village's children live a life of liberty, mostly caring about their own business, seperate form the adult's dayly routine. The kids' life is organised in a own pecking order, marked by cruelty towards each other as well as by early sexual expierences.
Mostly, the war seems to be quite distand except for enemy planes flying through the sky. One day, however, a plane crashes near the village. The men left for the crash site and returned after several hours, bringing their catch – an African American soldier who is the only surivior of a crew of three.
This was by far the most exciting event ever to have happened to the children who fear the captured enemy might be shot. His color of skin is totally unfamiliar and they are unsure if he's man or an animal. This strentghens their wish for the man to live. The village residents decide to keep the American captured, jailing him in the barn's basement, keeping his feet tied by a catch bolt. The news is brought to the authorities in the next city and the villagers start to await orders.
Soon, the narrator is included in the daily routine, giving the prisoner food and emptying his chamber pot. First, the narrator's father guarded him with his gun pointed at the enemy but soon enough he stopped doing so. The boy meeting the prisoner alone made him rise in the other kids' eyes. Watching him through the basement window he becomes their hero. One day he brings his brother and friend. Now the kids think of the American rather as pet then an wild animal.
When the catch bolt breaks, the kids bring the village's collection of tools with which the prisoner repairs it. When the city clerk arrives, he breaks his leg prothesis which the american fixes as well.
This leads to a bette mood for everyone until the clerks receives order to bring the captured man to the city. The narrotar fears for the prisoner, trying to warn him. The Amercian however seizes the opportunity and gets ahold of the boy, dragging him into the basement and locking the door with the catch bolt.
After some time of discussing, the adults start to break the door open and finally the boy's father attacks and kills the American with his axe. Hereby the boy's arm is serverly injured. After sleeping through three nights and days the boy awakes. After the boy has talked to the clerk, the clerk dies in an accident. The boy realizes how much he has changed. A feels alienated from the adults who have  risked his life to overcome the enemy. But after witnessing the death of two men he doesn't feel as child anymore as well.

Patrick McGuiness - The Last Hundred Days

Only one hundred days before the downfall of Ceausescu's remige the book's protagonist arrives in Bucharest to start working at the local university. While following his fate the reader gets to know a country in change. The regime is still swinging the iron fist in a society of corruption and fear. Dissidents are in constant danger of the Securitate, Ceausescu's secret police, that casts a cold shadow over Romania. He gets to know both sides of society: gim poverty is contrasted by the luxurious life of those privileged who are able to get everything they desire. Meanwhile, the shops for ordinary people are empty and the city is scarred by the demolition caused by Ceausescu's gangs. The protagonist, protected by his status as a foreign lecturer, is able to learn of all aspects of the late Romania. He gets to know dissidents as well as stallwarts of Ceausescu, poor as well as those privileged.

In his semi-biographic novel Patrick McGuinnes manages to describe the doomed society lively and enables his readers to travel a city and a country that no longer exist. He telly a story that still isn't familar with many in the western world.

A.L. Kennedy: Day

Kennedy's 2007 novel "Day" is a story about a young man playing war, after he survived the second world war.

Despite the brutality and terror of war, it gave Alfred Day a meaning of life for the first time. As a soldier, he felt as a part of something. After a lonesome childhood marked by a brutal father and loving but wek mother, he experienced being a member of a crew that liked them and accepted him as the person he was. During his service he was with the airforce and participated in the bombing of national socialist Germany. One day his aeroplane was shot down. As the only crew member to live he was imprisoned by the Germans.

After war he tried to lead a normal life and to forget the shadows of the past: the loss of his crew and the loss of the love he found during war. Working in a London book shop, he tried to shake off his past, but he couldn´t.

During his time in London he heard about the project of making a motion picture on the second world war. As a member of the film's cast he got back to Germany. He became an extra, portraying a prisoner of war. Each day he staid longer in this film camp, remembering more and more of his past, living through the situation for a second time. This experience helped him to finally move on with his life.

This book portrays a man that has to expiernce war twice to cope with life.

Sarah Hall - The Electric Michelangelo

Sarah Hall tells us the story of people who live at the beginning of the last century. Compared to nowadays idea of a normal life, the fates describe in this novel seem exotic and a bit crazy at times.

We accompany the main protagonist Cyrill through his childhood until his life as a adult.

His journey starts in Northwestern England, seeside town Morecombe Bay - in Summer full of tourists and in winter empty and silent. The young boy Cyrill is raised by a single mother who runs a hotel. She gives everybody a place to rest and helps in horrible situations. Cyrill life is divided beetween helping his mum and spending time with friends.

Through his gift to be good in drawing, he becomes an tattoo artist. The way of becoming an tattooer is long and tough. He is trained by a tattoo master who's an alcoholic and therefore oftem relies on Cyrill's help and care.

After his mother's death, he gets bonds more closely with his teacher. But not for good. Years go by and Cyrill grows into a man and a tattoo artist before his boss dies.

Now he is on the verge of a decision. Nothing's holding him in England so he opts for a new life abroad. He spends his last money on a third class ticket to America. He settles as a tattoo island at the Coney Island amusement park. What he sees in coney Island is akin to Morecombe Bay but wilder and bigger.

He settles in New York during Coney Island's peak. The place is lively and crazy, crowded with freaks, artists and carnies. All of them find a "new home" in Coney Island.

But soon enought Cyrills discovers not everything is perfect and well in his new home: One day a show Elephant tramples down a visitor who dies due to the incident.So therefore the elephant has to die. Cyrills is shocked that no one seems to agree that killing the animal is cruel and unjust. Instead an entrace fee is taken when the animal is killed publicly. He gets aware that everythings has to end at some pont.

One day he meets a woman who lives in his apartment building. She lives in an appartment with her horse. She is so different than other women. Unadapted, selfdepended. Her name is Grace. She always tries to get the best of it. On a special way she is crazy. One day she asks Cyrill wether he would make an all-over tattoo on her body. The motive is an eye like hieroglyhic.

For grace, this painfull exercise is a potentiall to forget a hard episode of her life. Each stich stands for the fight against a demon of the past. Soon, Cyrill falls in love with Grace.

I won't tell you how the story ends, you'll have to find out for yourself.

So what´s great thing about the story? You can read the book in different ways. Everbody might find an own approach to it, and will find own conclusions.

Jean-Claud Izzo - The Lost Sailors

For five month the crew of the Aldebaran have been fixed at the Digue du Large, the most outward part of the harbour of Marseille.

After arriving in the harbour the commercial court enchained the boat as a debt security.

First the whole crew thought that the problem would be solved fast. So they cleaned and controled the boat every day.

After a while the captain started organising help for them in the harbour like food, water and cleaning of clothes. Weeks later the captain and the mission to seafarers organised money for the families at home.

There are only three men left on board. This long break gives them a chance to think about their past. They tell us about their love, losses and hopes.

This short novel is a beautiful book, full of melancholia, humour and wordly wisdom.

It shows that life is not always a straight lain to walk. That life is worth to live no matter wether the life is cruel to you or nice.

Original title: Les marins perdus

Shusaku Endo - When I whistle

In this novel Shusaku Endo describes the fate of two different persons.

The first plot line focuses on Ozu, an honest and modest man, who grews up in the thirties of the last century. The scond plot line follows his son Eiichi who puts his career as an doctor in hospital first place, even comprosing his patients' well being. They are like yin and yang.

The novel starts with Ozu sitting in the train and meeting an old schoolmate for the first time since school. This is an occasion for him to remember, especially his deceased schoolmate Flatfish.

His memories are full of experience growing up in a Japan that no longer exists. Life in his childhood was tough and of shortage. On the other hand, life was easier without the pressure of prosperity. Ozu's evoked nostalgic feelings are in contrast to the life of his son.

His son Eiichi is a hard working man. During his middle school the father thought of him as a loyal son but since preparing for studying medicine Eiichi seems changed. Now he feels he has nothing in common with his own child.

Eiichi thinks that his father is an old school and kind man that lets others push him around. .

He wants success so badly that he´d do anything for it. In the daily routine of work, he feels and sees that he is an outsider. Colleagues his age have a life more easy because they belong to right clique. So he is jealous. And he tries everything to get an better standing.

In the hospital there is a co-worker he doesn´t like. These colleague dates the boss's daughter This co-worker's father runs an pharmaceutic company. So the boss, the pharmacist and the colleague plan to test a new medicine on patients. But the medicine fails.

Eiichi passes the information to the media. However he does so in his own interest and not for the patients' good. As a result of the scandal his co-worker is fired, which makes way for him to console his boss's daughter. He hope a possible marriage will boost his career chances.

The story shows the depths of the soul and what a man is able to reach his goals.

Typically for japanese literature the book is also a display for human loneliness and the desperate pursuit of happiness.