Crabwalk - Softcover

Gunter Grass

Softcover

ISBN 10: 057121651X ISBN 13: 9780571216512

Publisher: Harvest / Harcourt, Inc., 2003

Synopsis

Gunter Grass has been wrestling with Germany's past for decades now. In this new novel Grass examines a subject that has long been taboo - the suffering of Germans during World War II. Crabwalk tells the story of the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, a former cruiseship turned refugee carrier, by a Soviet submarine in January 1945. Some 9,000 people, most of them women and children fleeing from the advancing Red Army, went down in the Baltic Sea, making it the deadliest maritime disaster of all time. Grass's narrator is one of the few survivors, a middle-aged journalist who lives in Berlin. Born to an unwed mother on a lifeboat the night of the attack, Paul Pokriefke tries to piece together the tragic events. While his mother Tulla sees her whole existence in terms of that calamitous moment, Paul wishes their life could have been more normal, less touched by the past. For his teenage son Konrad, who dabbles in the dark, far-right corner of the internet, the Gustloff embodies the denial of Germany's wartime agony. Scuttling backward to move forward, Crabwalk is at once a reckoning with an untold chapter of European history and a reflection on the ways different generations of Germans now view their past. This is Grass's most provocative and engrossing work in years.

About this title

Book Description

Published in hardcover by Harcourt, 2003, 0-15-100764-0

From the Back Cover

"Günter Grass once again dazzlingly analyzes Germany's past and present, while hinting soberly at its future."--The New York Times Book Review

In January 1945, a Soviet submarine attacked the Wilhelm Gustloff, a German cruise ship turned refugee carrier, sending some nine thousand people to their deaths in the Baltic Sea. Born to an unwed mother on a lifeboat the night of the attack, a middle-aged journalist is trying to piece together the tragic events. While his mother sees her whole existence in terms of that calamitous moment, he wishes their life could have been less touched by the past. But for his teenage son, who dabbles in the far-right corners of the Internet, the obscurity of the Gustloff's fate embodies the denial of Germany's wartime suffering.
Crabwalk is at once a captivating tale of a tragedy at sea and a critical meditation on Germany's struggle with its past.

Born in Danzig, Germany in 1927, Günter Grass is the widely acclaimed author of plays, essays, poems, and numerous novels. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1999.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvest / Harcourt, Inc.
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 057121651X
• ISBN 13: 9780571216512
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 248