The Discontinuity of Small Things [Hardcover]

Kevin Haworth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 16, 2005

This quiet story of the Holocaust chronicles the lives of several Danes through the summer of 1943. It is the discontinuity of small things--the scattered inconveniences, chance meetings, glimpses of injustice, and indulgences of hope,--that haphazardly directs each individual to his fate. An hypnotic story of ordinary people caught in a silent maelstrom, ultimately driven to extraordinary feats. FIC000000

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Nazi-occupied Denmark provides a tumultuous backdrop for this thoroughly imagined debut that chronicles a chapter of the Holocaust from the perspective of a range of Copenhagen citizens. Meet Hannah Bergstrom, the pensive daughter of a once-wealthy Jewish businessman who has begun to question her bourgeois upbringing, embrace Zionism and dream of life in the Promised Land. Aging fisherman Carl Jensen spies troubling events along the unforgiving coastline, culminating during a late-night trawl when he witnesses a luxury liner conveying Jewish passengers from Norway to Germany. His wife, Jette, has suffered three miscarriages and hopes to adopt a baby from fleeing Jews. Haworth also builds suspense with supporting characters, including two young medical students, Henrik and Bakman, one heroic and one fearful, whose roles gradually expand as they plot to keep Danish Jews safe from escalating Nazi atrocities. This engrossing historical novel details a bright spot in a dark era, and readers will be heartened by good-hearted Danes' everyday heroic deeds. Agent, Michele Rubin. (May)
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Review

Nazi-occupied Denmark provides a tumultuous backdrop for this thoroughly imagined debut that chronicles a chapter of the Holocaust from the perspective of a range of Copenhagen citizens. Meet Hannah Bergstrom, the pensive daughter of a once-wealthy Jewish businessman who has begun to question her bourgeois upbringing, embrace Zionism and dream of life in the Promised Land. Aging fisherman Carl Jensen spies troubling events along the unforgiving coastline, culminating during a late-night trawl when he witnesses a luxury liner conveying Jewish passengers from Norway to Germany. His wife, Jette, has suffered three miscarriages and hopes to adopt a baby from fleeing Jews. Haworth also builds suspense with supporting characters, including two young medical students, Henrik and Bakman, one heroic and one fearful, whose roles gradually expand as they plot to keep Danish Jews safe from escalating Nazi atrocities. This engrossing historical novel details a bright spot in a dark era, and readers will be heartened by good-hearted Danes' everyday heroic deeds. --Publishers Weekly

THE DISCONTINUITY OF SMALL THINGS is one of the best novels I've read in a long time. A striking difference between Haworth's book and other Holocaust literature is the degree of realism his work brings to readers whose lives were never directly touched by the Holocaust. When I read some of the other books, I felt so numbed and shocked that I couldn't believe what I "saw." It was horrifying, but didn't seem believable. I couldn't relate to it -- not only because I'm not Jewish, but also because I've never experienced war firsthand. THE DISCONTINUITY OF SMALL THINGS, which focuses not on the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust, but on the hardships of daily life -- a preview of what was to come -- is different. What Haworth wrote seems real. This I can see happening. I can see it happening here in the U.S., too, and if it does, our experience may be much like that of the Danes during the 1940 German invasion and continuing occupation of their country. --Arlenesanders.com

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Quality Words in Print; 1 edition (April 16, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 097131604X
• ISBN-13: 978-0971316041
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,813,325 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Quiet Passion, March 7, 2006

By 

Library Laura - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Discontinuity of Small Things (Hardcover)

This small book does an excellent job of capturing the minor, seemingly inconvenient, events that can lead to a catastrophic history. Using several characters we see Denmark as the Nazi occupation changes lives. It's interesting how the characters' lives intersect. This book manages to be both literary and passionate. The spare writing style reminded me of Walker Percy's "The Moviegoer." This book has stayed with me long after I put it down.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kevin Haworth's novel is beautifully written, deeply moving. . . ., April 22, 2007

By 

Arlene Sanders "Author of TIGER BURNING BRIGHT" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Discontinuity of Small Things (Hardcover)

THE DISCONTINUITY OF SMALL THINGS is one of the best novels I've read in a long time.

A striking difference between Haworth's book and other Holocaust literature is the degree of realism his work brings to readers whose lives were never directly touched by the Holocaust.

When I read some of the other books, I felt so numbed and shocked that I couldn't believe what I "saw." It was horrifying, but didn't seem believable. I couldn't relate to it -- not only because I'm not Jewish, but also because I've never experienced war firsthand.

THE DISCONTINUITY OF SMALL THINGS, which focuses not on the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust, but on the hardships of daily life -- a preview of what was to come -- is different. What Haworth wrote seems real. This I can see happening. I can see it happening here in the U.S., too, and if it does, our experience may be much like that of the Danes during the 1940 German invasion and continuing occupation of their country.

Awareness dawns slowly for Bakman. Nazi propaganda pamphlets rain down from the sky. And "Bakman has heard -- where he has heard he can't quite remember...it comes like change of weather -- that there are places in Europe where Jews clean the streets. Dragged from their shops, scrubbing the pavement on their hands and knees. Not in Denmark, of course. These things would never happen in Denmark."

Carl Jensen, a fisherman in the village of Gilleleje, facing financial ruin during the occupation, feels desperate:


The sea smelled rich and hungry. [...]


The "small things" began to pile up:


[Bakman] had never felt the war so presently as today.
Each moment of the war until this day had been only a small
adjustment: cold water instead of lukewarm in his shower,
ersatz coffee instead of real, and milk only on occasion.
A small stockpiling of incident....

But today -- seeing the mound of small weaponry at a
fashionable square -- Bakman knows that something vital has
changed.... The dream of a simpler, purer Denmark, lovely
country by the sea, has passed him by.


Haworth's characters seem as real as your family and friends. They are ordinary people who find within themselves extraordinary courage.

THE DISCONTINUITY OF SMALL THINGS will break your heart, but it will also make you think. About the way the world was back then -- and the way it is now.


--Arlene Sanders, Author of TIGER BURNING BRIGHT

5.0 out of 5 stars I Want to Quote The Last Lines, October 8, 2009

By 

John Thorndike "Author: The Last of His Mind:... (Athens, OH United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Discontinuity of Small Things (Hardcover)

Because we know history, we know the danger that lies below the surface in this book, starting on the first page. Bakman, a young doctor, walks the streets of Copenhagen, moist pamphlets sticking to his ankles. From somewhere---perhaps from pamphlets like these, dropped from the sky---Bakman has heard that "there are places in Europe where Jews clean the streets. Dragged from their shops, scrubbing the pavement on their hands and knees." Bakman, and even the Jews of Denmark, have no idea how much worse than that it will be.

That's the tension here. It's 1943 and the Jews are in danger, in spite of the "great understanding" between Nazi Germany and the Danish government. Denmark is supposed to remain independent of its rapacious neighbor, to coexist peacefully. As readers we know this will not continue. And there are characters in the book who do understand. Henrik, another young doctor, tells Bakman, "Don't you see? They're going to take the Jews. Pack them up and drive them away. It's what the Germans do. They take them and they turn them into ashes. They grind them into wallpaper paste."

Bakman doesn't believe it. The Jewish Bergstroms don't believe it. The father has no idea what danger his family is in. He proceeds from day to day, as almost everyone does, under the mounting danger. Here is the discontinuity of small things, of the small details which are sometimes all we can see. Like most of us, Bergstrom lives history. He may understand it later.

All along, the larger story is cracking open. The book's fifteenth chapter is titled "Creatures Heading for Extinction." On page 187 Bergstrom is told the truth, as he argues with a neighbor. "They're sending you to Poland," his neighbor tells him. Bergstrom doesn't believe it: "Who's sending me to Poland?" His neighbor, who speaks German and has overheard the news, says, "Who. The Germans. Who do you think?"

The book's prose is often spare. Not exactly elegant: the story is too powerful for that. But there are descriptions that made me stop. Describing a tied-up fishing boat, Haworth writes, "The Jette sat solitary at the dock, a lone tooth in a worn mouth." He writes, "His body was like an appendage, a stalk attached to an over-busy brain, and all of its functions cleaved toward the autonomic."

The ending of the book brings several story lines together, and there are heartening incidents, as the citizens of Denmark show great bravery as they try to protect the Jews--a people in their midst whom they know, but not well. I want to quote the last lines of the book, because they're perfect. But of course that won't do: they're perfect because of all that has come before them.