Filmmaker, opera librettist, and Berlin resident Irene Dische turns her satiric brilliance on the most improbable of love stories. With the onset of a debilitating illness, Benedikt, an ascetic mathematician, longs for a child so advertises to adopt a boy. A couple of impoverished Russian refugeesmother and sonrespond. With this unlikely pair, Benedikt ungoes a hilarious, agonizing, sentimental educationset against the chaotic backdrop of reunified Germany.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Benedikt Waller's terminal illness is merely the physical complement to a moribund emotional life. A German count by birth, he is a mathematician dedicated to the study of the solitron, a particle that never collides with another particle. Facing death, however, he places an ad for a baby boy, hoping to obtain an heir. What he gets is Marja, a dirty Russian immigrant woman, and Valery, her incorrigible son. Unable to turn them away, Benedikt takes them back to the family estate and marries Marja. For a solitary man, he soon has a rich, if strange, life. Also orbiting him are his sister and her family; his institute colleagues; Schmidt, his male lover; and the estate staff. Set against the reunification of Germany, this allegorical tale by the author of Strange Traffic: Stories (Holt, 1995) moves wryly toward its strangely touching conclusion. Recommended for large collections.?Paul Hutchison, Bellefonte, Pa.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
While Germany is rejoicing in its reunification, Benedikt, Count Waller von Wallerstein, a brilliant and misogynistic mathematician, places an advertisement in the paper: "Unmarried man with terminal illness seeks child for purposes of adoption. Preferably toddler." Benedikt's life studies into the solitron (a particle unaffected by collision with another particle) leave him unprepared to deal with the advertisement's respondents: a Russian pianist named Marja and her unkempt, silent son, Valerie. Benedikt, taking Marja and Valerie to the family estate, attempts to instill in the new heir and his mother a love of cleanliness and order. In return, he is introduced to the messiness and imprecision of love and loss. Dische, an American journalist, filmmaker, and opera librettist living in Germany, is the author of a collection of short stories (Strange Traffic, 1995) and a novel (Pious Secrets, 1991). Originally published in Germany in 1993, her newest novel showcases Dische's quirky wit and her ability to distill emotional nuances to their purest form. This is a sure bet to please fans of literary fiction. Nancy Pearl
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