After Midnight
Published on 23. April 2020
Book
Paperback/Softback
144 pages
978-0-241-39182-2 (ISBN)
Description
Depicting a young woman's life in Nazi Germany, a masterpiece from the author of Child of All Nations
'I cannot think of anything else that conjures up so powerfully the atmosphere of a nation turned insane' Sunday Telegraph
Nineteen-year-old Sanna just wants to drink her beer in peace, but that's difficult when Hitler has come to town and his motorcade is blocking the streets of Frankfurt. What's more, her best friend Gerti is in love with a Jewish boy, her brother writes books that have been blacklisted and her own aunt may denounce her to the authorities at any moment, as Germany teeters on the edge of the abyss. Written after she had fled the Nazi regime, Irmgard Keun's masterly novel captures the feverish hysteria and horror of the era with devastating perceptiveness and humour.
Translated by Anthea Bell
'I cannot think of anything else that conjures up so powerfully the atmosphere of a nation turned insane' Sunday Telegraph
Nineteen-year-old Sanna just wants to drink her beer in peace, but that's difficult when Hitler has come to town and his motorcade is blocking the streets of Frankfurt. What's more, her best friend Gerti is in love with a Jewish boy, her brother writes books that have been blacklisted and her own aunt may denounce her to the authorities at any moment, as Germany teeters on the edge of the abyss. Written after she had fled the Nazi regime, Irmgard Keun's masterly novel captures the feverish hysteria and horror of the era with devastating perceptiveness and humour.
Translated by Anthea Bell
Reviews / Votes
I cannot think of anything else that conjures up so powerfully the atmosphere of a nation turned insane * Sunday Telegraph * Acerbically observed by this youthful, clever, undeceived eye....Crystalline yet acid * Jewish Chronicle * Explosive ... Reading After Midnight today [still] feels dangerous. I kept turning to the copyright page, unable to believe that such a sexually and politically frank book could have been published in 1937 Germany ... After Midnight haunts far beyond its final page * NPR * Brief, important and haunting -- Penelope LivelyMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Penguin Books Ltd
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 197 mm
Width: 130 mm
Thickness: 10 mm
Weight
120 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-241-39182-2 (9780241391822)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Persons
Irmgard Keun was born in Berlin in 1905 and found instant success with her novels Gilgi (1931) and The Artificial Silk Girl (1932). Everything changed in 1933 when the Nazis blacklisted her and destroyed her books; in response, she attempted to sue the Gestapo for loss of earnings. She left Germany (and her husband) in 1936 and lived in exile in Europe, where she wrote Child of All Nations (1936) and After Midnight (1937). She sneaked back into Germany in 1940 under a false name and spent the rest of the war in Cologne. In later years, she wrote for magazines and radio and raised a daughter alone. She died in 1982.