Death in Danzig [Hardcover]

Stefan Chwin (Author), Philip Boehm (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0151008051 | ISBN-13: 978-0151008056 | Publication Date: November 1, 2004

Germans flee the besieged city of Danzig in 1945. Poles driven out of eastern regions controlled by the Russians move into the homes hastily abandoned by their previous inhabitants. In an area of the city graced with beech trees and a stately cathedral, the stories of old and new residents intertwine: Hanemann, a German and a former professor of anatomy, who chooses to stay in Danzig after the mysterious death of his lover; the Polish family of the narrator, driven out of Warsaw; and a young Carpathian woman who no longer has a country, her cheerful nature concealing deep wounds.

Through his brilliantly defined characters, stunning evocation of place, and memorable descriptions of a world that was German but survives in Polish households, Chwin has created a reality that is beyond destruction.

(20040915)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

There's a mystery of sorts at the center of this probing, hermetic look at wartime Danzig—the Polish port known after WWII as Gdansk—but it's barely mysterious enough to give the novel, the author's first to appear in the U.S., any real momentum. Set in 1945 as the Russians are invading, the Germans who occupied the city are fleeing and the Poles are seeking refuge, the story focuses on a German anatomy professor named Hanemann who's been asked to investigate a suspicious death—which turns out to be that of his lover, Louisa Berger. Chwin weaves a tapestry of story lines, but the main character in the novel is Danzig itself, a poetic evocation of a classic Mitteleuropean city under the most dramatic circumstances. Though the parts don't quite add up to a whole, there are many memorable scenes: a catalogue of household possessions awaiting looting and destruction; the palpable fear of refugees aboard a ship bound for Hamburg; a retelling of the suicide of the German romantic poet Kleist. Chwin is a highly regarded writer and critic in Europe, and this polished if rather static novel is a valuable introduction to his work.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

In 1945, Russian forces advancing from the east attacked the German city of Danzig, and the German residents fled. As the Russians took control of the city, Poles driven from their native regions moved into the stately, now abandoned, homes. Hanemann, a German and a former professor of anatomy, refused to flee after the mysterious death of his lover. As Danzig became the Polish city of Gdansk and slowly relinquished its German identity, the old and new inhabitants were forced to interact. The narrator's family was driven out of Warsaw and settled into Hanemann's building. They take in a troubled young woman without a country, who struggles with her elusive and violent past. As the characters intermingle, they strive to define a city that no longer has a history of its own; their own stories define its nature, and reality becomes a blend of old and new. Chwin skillfully describes a city in as much chaos as its inhabitants, striving anew to forge a new sense of identity. Michael Spinella
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (November 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151008051
• ISBN-13: 978-0151008056
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,251,048 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "We knew for certain that the city would stand forever.", December 31, 2004

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Death in Danzig (Hardcover)

Danzig, a Polish city with German ties (and often under German control), became, officially, a Polish port after World War I. One generation later, however, Hitler invaded Poland to reclaim the city. The Russian offensive at the end of World War II drove the Germans out of Gdansk, at the same time that Poles living in the eastern territories came flooding back into the city. Stefan Chwin, a much praised Polish novelist from Gdansk, for whom this is the first novel translated into English, focuses on Danzig/Gdansk as it adapts to the comings and goings of its changing citizenry during the tumult of 1945.

Imbuing the city with the aura of a main character in his darkly impressionistic novel, Chwin shows that no matter who is officially in control, the city somehow survives, a permanent monument to the endurance of the communal spirit and the ability to adapt. Meticulous descriptions of the smallest aspects of daily life--home furnishings, buildings, neighborhoods, and life at the port--turn the city into a living, breathing entity, battered by changes of fortune, perhaps, but still functioning and still providing a home to a changing population.

The characters are finely drawn, unique beings with stories of their own, though many of these stories involve personal secrets which are not fully revealed, even to the reader. Hanemann, a former lecturer at the Anatomy School, has been in love with a young woman who drowned, something that Hanemann discovers when he is asked to perform her autopsy. Piotr, a young Polish boy who becomes the narrator, moves with his family into the empty apartment beneath Hanemann when the previous owners return to Germany. They are joined by Hanka, a young Ukrainian woman, sometimes suicidal as a result of unspeakable atrocities she has apparently endured. Later a mute child moves in. Numerous parallels are drawn between characters, especially lovers, and their destinies and the city and its destiny, and suicide is a constant motif.

Breath-taking in its language, its ability to create vibrant portraits of people and places, and its love and faith in the enduring qualities of the city itself, Death in Danzig is a fascinating, though unusual novel, one in which plot is far less important than the daily lives of those who inhabit it. Leisurely in its development, the novel creates an impressionistic time capsule in which the city becomes the only constant. Mary Whipple

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Anatomy of a Distressed City, November 23, 2004

By 

Debbie Lee Wesselmann (the Lehigh Valley, PA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (2008 HOLIDAY TEAM)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Death in Danzig (Hardcover)

Stefan Chwin, an acclaimed Polish writer throughout Europe whose work has not previously been translated into English, is a novelist with a microscopic eye. Every scene, every setting is finely detailed with beautifully precise language (translated by Philip Boehm). Death in Danzig begins during the waning days of World War II, as the Russians are approaching the Polish city which will later be known as Gdansk and as Hanneman, a German professor of anatomy, uncovers the day's cadaver to discover the body of his lover. This metaphor, of an illicit lover prepared to be dissected by strangers, serves as an apt metaphor for this besieged city, both during and after the war.

Chwin follows the lives of Hanneman, his new neighbors (and the narrator) who claim the apartment above him after the war, and a mysterious young woman named Hanka who is rumored to have endured unspeakable horrors during the war. For most of the novel, the conflict is slight - more of a general, internal uneasiness than anything sharply defined - with occasional flashes of intensity, such as when Hanneman is questioned by the Communist authorities about a letter he receives. Chwin favors description over scenic development, often diverting the narrative momentum to divulge a catalogue of what is in the room, but readers who delight in turns of phrase will be charmed with the exactitude of the author's imagination. The city of Danzig/Gdansk is as much a character as its human counterparts. The final pages of this otherwise quiet novel are breathtaking, both in danger and in language.

Death in Danzig is a difficult read because of the relatively static plot and the interior, detailed nature of the prose; however, dedicated readers of literary and international fiction will appreciate Chwin's skill in evoking a city and its inhabitants as they struggle to maintain normalcy.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Danzig to Gdansk, diaspora and disasters, February 17, 2005

By 

Thomas Willard "il_duce" (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Death in Danzig (Hardcover)

Why have we been without Chwin for so long? It is embarrasing how few books are tranlslasted and released into the American market. This book is a gem. Chwin deftly portrays life in Danzig toward the end of the Nazi occupation. The hills are alive with the sounds of Soviet artillery. The ethnic Germans are fleeing the advancing army. The air is thick with rumours of atrocities and rape.

Against this backdrop, Chwin presents us with the predicaments of a few chararacters, Hanneman, Hanka, J and the narrator. What makes this book truly amazing, is not the plot, nor the characterizations or the feeling of an impending apocalypse, rather it is the way he presents the physical world. Your eyes travel with the lens as it sweeps through rooms and scenes with a cinematic sensibility. The deadness is manifest as each image is haunted with a melancholic tone.

A great novel and I look forwad to more. If you haven't read The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass yet, do so now as its scope is larger; it also takes place in Danzig/Gdansk.