Anna Funder Knihy

Austrálska prozaička sa vo svojom debutovom románe vracia do obdobia, keď v Nemecku nastupoval k moci fašizmus. Príbeh je kolážou spomienok rozprávačky Ruth Beckerovej, doplnený o zápisky dávno nebohého Ernsta Tollera, významného predvojnového ľavicovo orientovaného dramatika. Z Ruthinej pamäti sa vyplavujú spomienky na predvojnový Berlín a emigráciu, ktorých impulzom bola zásielka z USA s fiktívnymi Tollerovými zápiskami. V nich spomína nielen na spoločné pôsobenie v protifašistickom hnutí mladých, najmä židovských, ľavicovo orientovaných intelektuálov, ale aj na svoju bývalú milenku Doru Fabianovú, ľavicovú intelektuálku a protivojnovú aktivistku, ktorú našli mŕtvu v emigrácii v Londýne za dodnes nevyjasnených okolností.

In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell; shortly afterwards the two Germanies reunited, and East Germany ceased to exist. In a country where the headquarters of the secret police can become a museum literally overnight, and one in 50 East Germans were informing on their countrymen and women, there are a thousand stories just waiting to get out. Anna Funder tells extraordinary tales from the underbelly of the former East Germany - she meets Miriam, who as a 16-year-old might have started World War III, visits the man who painted the line which became the Berlin Wall and gets drunk with the legendary 'Mik Jegger' of the East, once declared by the authorities to his face to 'no longer to exist'. Written with wit and literary flair, Stasiland provides a rivetting insight into life behind the wall.

Anna Funder slips into the pages of her hero George Orwell. As she watches him create his writing self, she tries to remember her own, and when she uncovers his forgotten wife, it's a revelation. Eileen O'Shaughnessy's literary brilliance shaped Orwell's work and her practical nous saved his life. But why - and how - was she written out of the story?Using newly discovered letters from Eileen to her best friend, Funder recreates the Orwells' marriage, through the Spanish Civil War and WW II in London. As she rolls up the screen concealing Orwell's private life she is led to question what it takes to be a writer - and what it is to be a wife.Compelling and utterly original, Wifedom speaks to the unsung work of women everywhere today, while offering a breathtakingly intimate view of one of the most important literary marriages of the 20th century. It is a book that speaks to our present moment as much as it illuminates the past.

One September morning, elderly Ruth Wesemann wakes to the sound of a parcel being delivered to her door. Inside she finds a tattered little notebook. Opening it she meets with a flood of memories of her time in Germany during the Nazis' rise to power.