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Available
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Publication
London: Portobello Books, 2012
Description
January 1945, the war is not yet over : the Soviets begin the deportation of the German minority from the labor camps in Ukraine. This is the story of seventeen year old Leo Auberge, who went to the camp with the naive unawareness of the boy eager to escape provincial life. The last five years however he experienced daily hunger and cold, extreme fatigue and death.
Media reviews
Von seltsamen Dingen, erschreckenden Erscheinungen hören wir in diesem Roman, vom "Hungerengel" und vom "Blechkuss", von "Kartoffelmenschen" und der "Atemschaukel". Der Hungerengel sitzt immer mit am Tisch, wenn die Insassen des Lagers die karge Ration Brot verzehren, die ihnen die
Der Roman ist aus 64 kurzen Abschnitten gebaut, ein jeder von ihnen schreitet ein Revier des Lagers, eine Höllenstunde des Lageralltags, ein Gefühl, eine Verlorenheit, einen Schmerz der Inhaftierten aus. Herta Müller hat für die "Atemschaukel" mit den Deportierten ihres Dorfes gesprochen, vor allem aber hat sie sich von Oskar Pastior, der als Jugendlicher in die Sowjetunion verschleppt wurde, immer wieder vom Leben und Sterben im Lager erzählen lassen. So sollte ein gemeinsames Buch beider entstehen, doch nach dem überraschenden Tod des Dichters im Herbst 2006 musste Herta Müller mit ihren Notizen, Aufzeichnungen, Plänen alleine zurande kommen und ihr eigenes Buch verfassen, das zwar auch die Lagergeschichte von Oskar Pastior erzählt, aber dennoch nicht als Schlüsselroman gelesen werden sollte
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"Brotoffizierin" zugeteilt hat, quälend langsam essen die einen, verzweifelt schlingen die anderen; der Hungerengel wacht über ihren Schlaf, er geht durch ihre Träume, begleitet sie in die Fabrik und auf das Feld hinaus, wo sie schuften, bis sie umfallen und in die Grube gekippt werden oder sich irgendwie aufrecht halten, um dann bis zum nächsten Tag in ihre Baracken zurückzukehren...Der Roman ist aus 64 kurzen Abschnitten gebaut, ein jeder von ihnen schreitet ein Revier des Lagers, eine Höllenstunde des Lageralltags, ein Gefühl, eine Verlorenheit, einen Schmerz der Inhaftierten aus. Herta Müller hat für die "Atemschaukel" mit den Deportierten ihres Dorfes gesprochen, vor allem aber hat sie sich von Oskar Pastior, der als Jugendlicher in die Sowjetunion verschleppt wurde, immer wieder vom Leben und Sterben im Lager erzählen lassen. So sollte ein gemeinsames Buch beider entstehen, doch nach dem überraschenden Tod des Dichters im Herbst 2006 musste Herta Müller mit ihren Notizen, Aufzeichnungen, Plänen alleine zurande kommen und ihr eigenes Buch verfassen, das zwar auch die Lagergeschichte von Oskar Pastior erzählt, aber dennoch nicht als Schlüsselroman gelesen werden sollte
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Å overleve i helvete : Nobelprisvinner Herta Müllers nye roman skildrer fem år i en sovjetisk arbeidsleir. Boka forteller en viktig historie i en høyst særegen stil. Herta Müller mottok i 2009 Nobelprisen i litteratur. I begrunnelsen heter det at hun nekter å fortie om de inhumane sidene
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ved kommunismen.
På norsk har man fram til nå kunnet lese tre av hennes romaner. Alle skildrer de på et vis diktaturets konsekvenser; det dreier seg om mennesker utsatt for overvåkning, terror og fordrivelse. Show Less
Poesiens avslørende makt : Nobelprisvinner Herta Müllers metode når det gjelder valg av ord er original. Hennes blanding av poesi, nøkternhet og jordnærhet blir en enestående litterær reise.
User reviews
LibraryThing member labfs39
I was particularly eager to read this novel because I've never read anything by Herta Müller, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2009. The author was born and raised in Romania, but left for Germany to escape the harassment and threats of Ceauşescu's secret police. Although Müller never
Leo Ausberg is seventeen, bored with small town life, and exploring his first sexual encounters when he receives an order that he is to be deported to a Soviet labor camp for five years to help with the rebuilding of Russia after Stalingrad. Others from his town have been "called up" as well, and Leo is secretly excited at the thought of traveling and leaving his provincial town and family for a while. With a gramophone case as a suitcase, Leo boards a cattle car for the East with a light heart.
The next five years in the coke-processing plant disabuse Leo of his foolish optimism and teach him many things: 1 shovel load=1 gram of bread, to let slip any hint of his homosexuality would mean death, and the cruel intimacy of the hunger angel. The long hours, the cold and heat, the abuse, and the lice are nothing to the tortures of the hunger angel. He encompasses the mind and subsumes the will. He promises to come back, but never leaves. Everyone in the camps has a hunger angel, and they dictate everything in the camps, from hunger-fur to morality. Müller focuses on this image as compulsively as the camp inmate thinks of food, and the reader is drawn into the mood claustrophobic obsession.
Although the beginning and end of the story are plot focused, many of the middle chapters most closely resemble essays. As Leo (and Müller) reflect on the ways in which camp life impact the way the mind functions, the plot falls to the side. These short pieces each deal with an element of camp life: shoveling, chemicals, boredom, a cuckoo clock, retribution of a bread thief. Although they are all tied together through Leo, I found that my reading slowed as I read one or two chapter essays and then stopped, with little need to carry on for plot's sake. As I neared the end of the book and the narrative became more plot focused, and I finished quite quickly.
[The Hunger Angel] opened my eyes to the post-war plight of the Romanian ethnic Germans, about whom I knew little. I thought it was mostly German POWs who were sent to the camps. In addition, I enjoyed the language of the text , which is poetic, full of imagery, and poignant without being pitying. I look forward to reading more of Müller's work and have added [The Land of Green Plums] to my list.
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experienced the Soviet labor camps to which many ethnic German Romanians were sent after World War II, her mother did. In addition to family history, Müller extensively interviewed the poet Oskar Pastior, a former deportee, in what was to be a collaboration. Unfortunately, Pastior passed away, and Müller ended up writing the book alone. This intimate knowledge about the camps lends an authenticity to the novel, which to me is essential when writing survivor literature and this type of fictitious, but personal narrative.Leo Ausberg is seventeen, bored with small town life, and exploring his first sexual encounters when he receives an order that he is to be deported to a Soviet labor camp for five years to help with the rebuilding of Russia after Stalingrad. Others from his town have been "called up" as well, and Leo is secretly excited at the thought of traveling and leaving his provincial town and family for a while. With a gramophone case as a suitcase, Leo boards a cattle car for the East with a light heart.
The next five years in the coke-processing plant disabuse Leo of his foolish optimism and teach him many things: 1 shovel load=1 gram of bread, to let slip any hint of his homosexuality would mean death, and the cruel intimacy of the hunger angel. The long hours, the cold and heat, the abuse, and the lice are nothing to the tortures of the hunger angel. He encompasses the mind and subsumes the will. He promises to come back, but never leaves. Everyone in the camps has a hunger angel, and they dictate everything in the camps, from hunger-fur to morality. Müller focuses on this image as compulsively as the camp inmate thinks of food, and the reader is drawn into the mood claustrophobic obsession.
Although the beginning and end of the story are plot focused, many of the middle chapters most closely resemble essays. As Leo (and Müller) reflect on the ways in which camp life impact the way the mind functions, the plot falls to the side. These short pieces each deal with an element of camp life: shoveling, chemicals, boredom, a cuckoo clock, retribution of a bread thief. Although they are all tied together through Leo, I found that my reading slowed as I read one or two chapter essays and then stopped, with little need to carry on for plot's sake. As I neared the end of the book and the narrative became more plot focused, and I finished quite quickly.
[The Hunger Angel] opened my eyes to the post-war plight of the Romanian ethnic Germans, about whom I knew little. I thought it was mostly German POWs who were sent to the camps. In addition, I enjoyed the language of the text , which is poetic, full of imagery, and poignant without being pitying. I look forward to reading more of Müller's work and have added [The Land of Green Plums] to my list.
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LibraryThing member Lila_Gustavus
That which doesn't kill me...doesn't make me stronger either.
No man is an Island, entire of itself...Every man is an Island, entire of itself.
(emphasis and changes are mine)
These two quotes are simply thoughts of two individuals. Nietzsche's quote isn't even accurate ('kill' should be 'destroy'); I
When I picked up The Hunger Angel, I didn't know what to expect. I was hoping I would like it and would be able to appreciate the aspects of Herta Müller's writing that earned her the title of a Nobel Prize winner. What I didn't expect was to be stunned into silence by the power of Müller's gift. From page three, when I read
"I carry silent baggage. I have packed myself into silence so deeply and for so long that I can never unpack myself using words. When I speak, I only pack myself a little differently."
I knew that, from then on, my life would be split into two phases, the life before The Hunger Angel and the life after. I knew that because those words spoken by Leo were my life, my most secret and yet most fundamental feelings that I'd always wanted to articulate and that I couldn't even express cohesively to myself. This review is the most difficult to write because The Hunger Angel became very personal to me. Reading it was an epiphanic experience. With every page, all the murky, undefinable emotions rising within me and causing me so much anguish became crystalline clear.
To avoid the danger of ending up with a mini memoir of mine, instead of a somewhat helpful review of Ms. Müller's book, I will only say that when Leo writes about his homesickness, about displacement, about feelings of not really belonging anywhere, he writes about me as well.
Müller's writing is incredible, it has clarity and shoots meaningful images like arrows, straight through your heart. And yet, this same writing created a novel that's so layered with messages, that every time you read it, you'll find meanings and depths you hadn't the time before. Every person that reads The Hunger Angel will come away from it with a different understanding, a different message and a different interpretation from other readers.
There is one thing though that is unmistakeable and undeniable regardless of what else all who read The Hunger Angel understand from it. And that is the power of words.Words are what helps Leo survive the five years of terror and horror and I believe words propel him to live just one more day of his life after the gulag. Not being able to tell his story to anyone, facing the cruel realization that no one really wanted to listen, to know, he writes it all down. He unburdens himself of the silence he carried for so long by pouring all the words he can never speak onto paper.
There are so many weighty subjects that Herta Müller writes about in The Hunger Angel, that whole dissertations could be written about it (and no doubt they will some day soon). The life in the gulags, the loss of dignity, the hunger angel that becomes Leo's constant companion and that never goes away, even if the food is abundant, because there's always something else we'll desire and the hunger angel will be there to fuel it.
To me, it's the themes of dispossession and displacement that were crucial. Once it happens to a person, it can never be healed. Because, contrary to one of those sayings again, time doesn't always heal all wounds. Indeed, when you're uprooted, denied life where you had always belonged, not only can you spend the entire rest of your life searching for that which can never be found, but you can also, on some subconscious level or through an upbringing doom your descendants in the way you were doomed. How am I drawing this conclusion? My great-grandparents and my grandparents were Poles living in Ukraine and I believe a few months into the WWII, they had to run, literally like thieves in the middle of the night, from the Red Army. They left everything behind, their vast lands (they were farmers), their homes, everything in them. All they could take, they carried in potato sacks on their backs. I am now 34 years old, with a family of my own and the most prominent factor present in all my life is that I never really have felt at home, felt an attachment to a place that would make me realize this is where I belong. I still don't. Most importantly, displacement isn't just geographical. It's also the displacement of the soul. And Leo is and will always remain doubly displaced: from his Romanian town and by being denied his sexuality. Leo is homosexual and that's yet another silent baggage that he carries, that will never allow him to find a place where he belongs, as long as he has to fear being discovered.
I have to finish these wandering thoughts of mine about The Hunger Angel. I would love for you to just know this: read this book not for the plot, certainly not for seat-of-the-edge suspense, and maybe not even all that much for the characters. There's no happy ending either. Read The Hunger Angel to experience the most incredible writing, to witness the work of a literary genius. Not one sentence can be skipped because they all carry meanings and when you find those meanings, which will probably in some way become personal to you gasp and hold your breath in shock. Read it also for the history that has been mostly ignored and still is. Soviet Union's communist regime with Stalin for a leader performed ethnic cleansings on an unimaginable scale. Herta Muller gives our generation an opportunity to be ignorant no longer. And don't be that person who exclaims with disdain, 'It's only fiction!'. The quote I'll share below is not the author's figment of imagination. The speech of an officer to the prisoners of the gulag, as absurd as it may sound, does give you a real taste of the ideology behind Soviet Union's communism.
"An officer...gave a speech at the roll-call grounds, the Appellplatz. He spoke about peace and FUSSKULTUR...: Fusskultur strengthens our hearts. And in our hearts beats the heart of the Soviet Socialist Republics. Fusskultur steels the strength of the working class. Through Fusskultur the Soviet Union will blossom in the strength of the Communist Party and in the peace and happiness of the people."
Translation
The Hunger Angel is translated by Philip Boehm, who is an accomplished translator of works in German and Polish. He obviously performed magic when translating Muller's novel. To be put to task to translate such a complex novel, with meanings and words as the main themes, must have been awe-inspiring. You'll catch yourself forgetting that The Hunger Angel is originally written in German and thinking that maybe English is Muller's native language. And the thing I admired the most when considering Mr. Boehm's approach to this novel, is his choice of the title. Original one (Atemschaukel - breath-swing) is not easily and literally translatable into English in order to make sense, like it does in German. I know that it's just my opinion, but The Hunger Angel is the title (and what it represents throughout the novel) that was meant to be. One may wonder what sense does it make that The Hunger, that awful, persistent and never-ending sensation, is called an angel. My understanding is that firstly, as Leo personifies sensations and things and objectifies people to maybe develop some kind of mental detachment pivotal to survival, a hunger becomes a being, a companion, a presence that never leaves, the Hunger Angel. Secondly, now that it's no longer simply a bodily sensation, in the end, the Hunger Angel is the only one that never abandons Leo and lets him know that Leo's not alone in that world he no longer belongs to. Sick and twisted, yes. But that's mercy nonetheless, and angels and mercy travel in pairs.
No man is an Island, entire of itself...Every man is an Island, entire of itself.
(emphasis and changes are mine)
These two quotes are simply thoughts of two individuals. Nietzsche's quote isn't even accurate ('kill' should be 'destroy'); I
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suppose it was changed by simply another individual to make the message more powerful And yet, people use these witticisms as guides/mental support for their lives. I really dislike these and many other 'sayings' because they're misleading and untrue. Nowhere is it more obvious than in The Hunger Angel. Soviet Union's regime and its gulags had that absolute power which could and did kill a great number of people; those who had the misfortune to come back from the dead, existed among the living as if suspended between life and death. They indeed survived the camps but returned weaker, conditioned to fear, yearning for the relief of death and not receiving it. They were little islands floating among those saved from the cruel reality of the camps and living entirely of and dependent on themselves. This is the truth Leo Auberg embodies.When I picked up The Hunger Angel, I didn't know what to expect. I was hoping I would like it and would be able to appreciate the aspects of Herta Müller's writing that earned her the title of a Nobel Prize winner. What I didn't expect was to be stunned into silence by the power of Müller's gift. From page three, when I read
"I carry silent baggage. I have packed myself into silence so deeply and for so long that I can never unpack myself using words. When I speak, I only pack myself a little differently."
I knew that, from then on, my life would be split into two phases, the life before The Hunger Angel and the life after. I knew that because those words spoken by Leo were my life, my most secret and yet most fundamental feelings that I'd always wanted to articulate and that I couldn't even express cohesively to myself. This review is the most difficult to write because The Hunger Angel became very personal to me. Reading it was an epiphanic experience. With every page, all the murky, undefinable emotions rising within me and causing me so much anguish became crystalline clear.
To avoid the danger of ending up with a mini memoir of mine, instead of a somewhat helpful review of Ms. Müller's book, I will only say that when Leo writes about his homesickness, about displacement, about feelings of not really belonging anywhere, he writes about me as well.
Müller's writing is incredible, it has clarity and shoots meaningful images like arrows, straight through your heart. And yet, this same writing created a novel that's so layered with messages, that every time you read it, you'll find meanings and depths you hadn't the time before. Every person that reads The Hunger Angel will come away from it with a different understanding, a different message and a different interpretation from other readers.
There is one thing though that is unmistakeable and undeniable regardless of what else all who read The Hunger Angel understand from it. And that is the power of words.Words are what helps Leo survive the five years of terror and horror and I believe words propel him to live just one more day of his life after the gulag. Not being able to tell his story to anyone, facing the cruel realization that no one really wanted to listen, to know, he writes it all down. He unburdens himself of the silence he carried for so long by pouring all the words he can never speak onto paper.
There are so many weighty subjects that Herta Müller writes about in The Hunger Angel, that whole dissertations could be written about it (and no doubt they will some day soon). The life in the gulags, the loss of dignity, the hunger angel that becomes Leo's constant companion and that never goes away, even if the food is abundant, because there's always something else we'll desire and the hunger angel will be there to fuel it.
To me, it's the themes of dispossession and displacement that were crucial. Once it happens to a person, it can never be healed. Because, contrary to one of those sayings again, time doesn't always heal all wounds. Indeed, when you're uprooted, denied life where you had always belonged, not only can you spend the entire rest of your life searching for that which can never be found, but you can also, on some subconscious level or through an upbringing doom your descendants in the way you were doomed. How am I drawing this conclusion? My great-grandparents and my grandparents were Poles living in Ukraine and I believe a few months into the WWII, they had to run, literally like thieves in the middle of the night, from the Red Army. They left everything behind, their vast lands (they were farmers), their homes, everything in them. All they could take, they carried in potato sacks on their backs. I am now 34 years old, with a family of my own and the most prominent factor present in all my life is that I never really have felt at home, felt an attachment to a place that would make me realize this is where I belong. I still don't. Most importantly, displacement isn't just geographical. It's also the displacement of the soul. And Leo is and will always remain doubly displaced: from his Romanian town and by being denied his sexuality. Leo is homosexual and that's yet another silent baggage that he carries, that will never allow him to find a place where he belongs, as long as he has to fear being discovered.
I have to finish these wandering thoughts of mine about The Hunger Angel. I would love for you to just know this: read this book not for the plot, certainly not for seat-of-the-edge suspense, and maybe not even all that much for the characters. There's no happy ending either. Read The Hunger Angel to experience the most incredible writing, to witness the work of a literary genius. Not one sentence can be skipped because they all carry meanings and when you find those meanings, which will probably in some way become personal to you gasp and hold your breath in shock. Read it also for the history that has been mostly ignored and still is. Soviet Union's communist regime with Stalin for a leader performed ethnic cleansings on an unimaginable scale. Herta Muller gives our generation an opportunity to be ignorant no longer. And don't be that person who exclaims with disdain, 'It's only fiction!'. The quote I'll share below is not the author's figment of imagination. The speech of an officer to the prisoners of the gulag, as absurd as it may sound, does give you a real taste of the ideology behind Soviet Union's communism.
"An officer...gave a speech at the roll-call grounds, the Appellplatz. He spoke about peace and FUSSKULTUR...: Fusskultur strengthens our hearts. And in our hearts beats the heart of the Soviet Socialist Republics. Fusskultur steels the strength of the working class. Through Fusskultur the Soviet Union will blossom in the strength of the Communist Party and in the peace and happiness of the people."
Translation
The Hunger Angel is translated by Philip Boehm, who is an accomplished translator of works in German and Polish. He obviously performed magic when translating Muller's novel. To be put to task to translate such a complex novel, with meanings and words as the main themes, must have been awe-inspiring. You'll catch yourself forgetting that The Hunger Angel is originally written in German and thinking that maybe English is Muller's native language. And the thing I admired the most when considering Mr. Boehm's approach to this novel, is his choice of the title. Original one (Atemschaukel - breath-swing) is not easily and literally translatable into English in order to make sense, like it does in German. I know that it's just my opinion, but The Hunger Angel is the title (and what it represents throughout the novel) that was meant to be. One may wonder what sense does it make that The Hunger, that awful, persistent and never-ending sensation, is called an angel. My understanding is that firstly, as Leo personifies sensations and things and objectifies people to maybe develop some kind of mental detachment pivotal to survival, a hunger becomes a being, a companion, a presence that never leaves, the Hunger Angel. Secondly, now that it's no longer simply a bodily sensation, in the end, the Hunger Angel is the only one that never abandons Leo and lets him know that Leo's not alone in that world he no longer belongs to. Sick and twisted, yes. But that's mercy nonetheless, and angels and mercy travel in pairs.
Show Less
LibraryThing member drachenbraut23
There’s the boredom of wasted conversations, not to mention opportunities. Even the simplest request takes many words, and there’s no guarantee that any one of them will do the trick. I often avoid conversations, and when I seek them out, I am afraid of them,......
Herta Müller actually
I have read the book in German and in the English translation to be able to see how the prose poetry is conveyed. I felt that the book was translated brilliantly but that some of the strength of her writing got lost in translation.
Reading the book was not easy, even though (or because?) the language is truly expressive and, therefore, intellectually quite challenging. The story starts just behind the existential zero and at that with a highly artificial reality as well as a sensitive understanding of language. Herta Müller uses innovative and bizzare metaphors, personifications (cement, hunger, plants, everything lives) and the paradox. Thus, she created an alienating language which is disturbing and graphic at the same time. With that she succeeds to capture the mood – the experiences of severe, long, monotonous, incessant hunger, selfishness, meanness and solitude - which might not have been adequately expressed differently. Her writing is unsentimental and yet goes deep, there is nothing gaudy or unnecessarily dramatized, and yet it penetrates your innermost core. However, once I got into it and found the essential concentration the book became quickly intensely fascinating with its beautiful sweeping and extremely sad story without producing any kind of false consternation. The book is by no means about self-pity, but rather about the survival instinct of the main protagonist, the 17 year old Leopold Auberg. All events are told from his point of view, with the use of prose poetry and told in a sort of sad irony.
On the hunger angel
Hunger is an object.
The angel has climbed into my brain.
The angel doesn’t think. He thinks straight.
He’s never absent.
He knows my boundaries and he knows his direction.
He knows where I come from and he knows what he does to me.
He knew all of this before he met me, and he knows my future.
He lingers in every capillary like quicksilver. First a sweetness in my throat. Then pressure on my stomach and chest. The fear is too much.
Everything has become lighter.
The hunger angel leans to one side as he walks with open eyes. He staggers around in small circles and balances on my breath-swing. He knows the homesickness in the brain and the blind alleys in the air.
The air angel leans to the other side as he walks with open hunger.
He whispers to himself and to me: where there is loading there can also be unloading. He is of the same flesh that he is deceiving. Will have deceived.
He knows about saved bread and cheek-bread and he sends out the white hare.
He says he’s coming back but stays where he is.
When he comes, he comes with force.
It’s utterly clear:
1 shovel load = 1 gram bread.
Hunger is an object.
Absolute zero is that which cannot be expressed. And we agree, absolute zero and I, that absolute zero itself is beyond discussion, except in the most roundabout way. The zero’s wide-open mouth can eat but not speak. The zero encircles you with its strangling tenderness. An emergency exchange has no tolerance for compromise. It is urgent and direct, like:
1 shovel load = 1 gram bread.
Herta Müller actually
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planned to write this book together with Oskar Pastior, a German/Romanian poet. Oskar Pastior was from 1946 – 1949, with other ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe, in one of the forced labor camps of the USSR. Unfortunately, he died in 2006, and she had to write the book herself. The book is partly based on his experiences and on the experiences of other people Herta Müller knew, such as her own mother. Müller and Pastior still visited together, in 2004, the camp in which he spends almost five years of his young adult life.I have read the book in German and in the English translation to be able to see how the prose poetry is conveyed. I felt that the book was translated brilliantly but that some of the strength of her writing got lost in translation.
Reading the book was not easy, even though (or because?) the language is truly expressive and, therefore, intellectually quite challenging. The story starts just behind the existential zero and at that with a highly artificial reality as well as a sensitive understanding of language. Herta Müller uses innovative and bizzare metaphors, personifications (cement, hunger, plants, everything lives) and the paradox. Thus, she created an alienating language which is disturbing and graphic at the same time. With that she succeeds to capture the mood – the experiences of severe, long, monotonous, incessant hunger, selfishness, meanness and solitude - which might not have been adequately expressed differently. Her writing is unsentimental and yet goes deep, there is nothing gaudy or unnecessarily dramatized, and yet it penetrates your innermost core. However, once I got into it and found the essential concentration the book became quickly intensely fascinating with its beautiful sweeping and extremely sad story without producing any kind of false consternation. The book is by no means about self-pity, but rather about the survival instinct of the main protagonist, the 17 year old Leopold Auberg. All events are told from his point of view, with the use of prose poetry and told in a sort of sad irony.
On the hunger angel
Hunger is an object.
The angel has climbed into my brain.
The angel doesn’t think. He thinks straight.
He’s never absent.
He knows my boundaries and he knows his direction.
He knows where I come from and he knows what he does to me.
He knew all of this before he met me, and he knows my future.
He lingers in every capillary like quicksilver. First a sweetness in my throat. Then pressure on my stomach and chest. The fear is too much.
Everything has become lighter.
The hunger angel leans to one side as he walks with open eyes. He staggers around in small circles and balances on my breath-swing. He knows the homesickness in the brain and the blind alleys in the air.
The air angel leans to the other side as he walks with open hunger.
He whispers to himself and to me: where there is loading there can also be unloading. He is of the same flesh that he is deceiving. Will have deceived.
He knows about saved bread and cheek-bread and he sends out the white hare.
He says he’s coming back but stays where he is.
When he comes, he comes with force.
It’s utterly clear:
1 shovel load = 1 gram bread.
Hunger is an object.
Absolute zero is that which cannot be expressed. And we agree, absolute zero and I, that absolute zero itself is beyond discussion, except in the most roundabout way. The zero’s wide-open mouth can eat but not speak. The zero encircles you with its strangling tenderness. An emergency exchange has no tolerance for compromise. It is urgent and direct, like:
1 shovel load = 1 gram bread.
Show Less
LibraryThing member HeathMochaFrost
Since I'm overdue in writing this review, I'll start by saying that the earlier reviews by dchaikin, Litfan, Linda92007, and Lila_Gustavus reflect some of my reactions as well.
The Hunger Angel tells the story of 17-year-old Leo Auberg's deportation to a Soviet labor camp, and the five years he
Because the chapters are short and serve these two different purposes, I found some to be more interesting than others. It also made for a slightly disorienting reading experience. But the book is well worth reading -- for the power of the writing and language, and the light it shines on a dark period in history. Muller places Leo's focus on physical experiences and specific objects, and this stylistic decision draws the reader into the labor camp. I believe that reading this novel is MEANT to be disorienting, that the reader SHOULD feel a sense of unreality and nightmare, in between moments of hypnotic focus on physical objects.
Muller made the not-uncommon decision to omit quotation marks from the novel. At some point while I read, I realized that it also contains no question marks. In the translator's note at the end of the book, Philip Boehm confirms that he followed this stylistic choice from the German original -- and that's where I learned there are also no semi-colons in the book. The limited punctuation adds to the reader's confusion and disorientation, particularly when reading a sentence that is obviously a question. The last sentence in the chapter called "Cement" is, "So why can't I disappear" (p. 33). This happens again and again, increasing the sense of confusion and dislocation.
Don't read The Hunger Angel looking for plot, and don't try too hard to keep track of all the characters mentioned -- many of them are not clearly defined, and not too important in themselves. Read it to admire the way Muller uses language to bring this dark history to life, and to pull you into Leo's world.
The Hunger Angel tells the story of 17-year-old Leo Auberg's deportation to a Soviet labor camp, and the five years he
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spent there. If you read novels mainly for plot or character development, this one might not be for you. It helps to know BEFORE you try to read it that the story isn't really linear, but could instead be called episodic. The chapters are very short, and some of them describe actions and events that occur during Leo's time in the labor camp. However, some of them are primarily descriptive; their purpose is not to move the story forward, but to add another layer to our understanding of Leo's experiences in the camp.Because the chapters are short and serve these two different purposes, I found some to be more interesting than others. It also made for a slightly disorienting reading experience. But the book is well worth reading -- for the power of the writing and language, and the light it shines on a dark period in history. Muller places Leo's focus on physical experiences and specific objects, and this stylistic decision draws the reader into the labor camp. I believe that reading this novel is MEANT to be disorienting, that the reader SHOULD feel a sense of unreality and nightmare, in between moments of hypnotic focus on physical objects.
Muller made the not-uncommon decision to omit quotation marks from the novel. At some point while I read, I realized that it also contains no question marks. In the translator's note at the end of the book, Philip Boehm confirms that he followed this stylistic choice from the German original -- and that's where I learned there are also no semi-colons in the book. The limited punctuation adds to the reader's confusion and disorientation, particularly when reading a sentence that is obviously a question. The last sentence in the chapter called "Cement" is, "So why can't I disappear" (p. 33). This happens again and again, increasing the sense of confusion and dislocation.
Don't read The Hunger Angel looking for plot, and don't try too hard to keep track of all the characters mentioned -- many of them are not clearly defined, and not too important in themselves. Read it to admire the way Muller uses language to bring this dark history to life, and to pull you into Leo's world.
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LibraryThing member hemlokgang
Profoundly disturbing, exquisitely evocative, heartrending. I do not know how else to characterize this magnificent piece of writing. Muller uses language (and I read this in an English translation) as few writers I have ever read have been able to. I felt as if I was inside the soul of Leo, a
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young man sent to a Russian work camp at the end of WWII. I am anything but a squeamish reader, yet I repeatedly had to set this book down because of the pain evoked by the author's prose. Just as Leo is haunted for the rest of his life by the hunger angel, I will be haunted by this powerful novel! Show Less
LibraryThing member ateolf
This was a fantastic book. Müller writes with her with usual blend of poetics and terse economy of language. I had only read The Land of Green Plums before this, and it did not disappoint. The descriptions of isolation and hunger make it a very worthwhile read.
LibraryThing member bjbookman
For two days I thought about how to review this book. I know I cannot do this book the praise it deserves. It is a novel that one has to be read slowly to savor the writers prose. As I was reading my mind keep flashing back to 'The House of the Dead'.
One of my favorite chapters is entitled 'The
This story of Leopold Aubern's four years in a Russian labor camp is told with such beauty and sorrow that the reader feels all that Leopold feels. ! Shovel load=I gram of bread becomes the readers mantra as well as Leopold's. When he is released and returns back home, Leo is never really free.
This is the kind of novel that begs to be read again. I know I will.
One of my favorite chapters is entitled 'The
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Bread Trap' a powerful describtion on how bread was traded for one that looked larger. The "Hunger Angel' was the only companion that each person in the camp could relate to. This story of Leopold Aubern's four years in a Russian labor camp is told with such beauty and sorrow that the reader feels all that Leopold feels. ! Shovel load=I gram of bread becomes the readers mantra as well as Leopold's. When he is released and returns back home, Leo is never really free.
This is the kind of novel that begs to be read again. I know I will.
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LibraryThing member BALE
Lyric beauty, terror and violence are logistically incompatible. Yet, in Herta Muller’s “The Hunger Angel” they blend into one, united and breathless. Muller’s moving portrait of a young man’s life before he was placed in a forced Russian labor camp, his survival and life after his return
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is flawless. The author’s protagonist (Leo) and labor camp are symbolic of all people and camps involved during this horrendous time. Muller writes with poetic depth as she rhythmically describes the horror and hunger that pervades the camp. She share’s the narrator-Leo’s experience in a dream-like sequence with intermittent details expressed via a flat, detached voice. It is the only way for Leo to survive; by removing himself emotionally from the events that mark his stay. However, the novel is not character driven; it is not specifically about Leo. It is about the sheer terror and fear ignited by five years of psychological and physical deprivation. It is about Totalitarianism, its' inhumanity and how it affects the human condition before, during and after one is forcibly involved. Muller brings to light and describes this painful truth: no matter how relieved one is to return home, one can never truly “Go home”. The shadows follow and one is forever haunted by the past. It seeps into one’s life, uninvited. Friends and family do not know who you are; they cannot relate. Violence has become second nature. One must struggle to keep the demons at bay. Such is the life of one who has lived and experienced these, and other, “crimes against humanity”. Muller has written this novel with passion, courage and understanding; it is an exceptional work of literature. In 2009, Herta Muller won the Nobel Prize for literature. There is little reason to ask why. Her works speaks for itself. Show Less
LibraryThing member Gwnfkt12
This is the story of Leo, his past in a Russian work camp and his views on that experience from his life afterward. Leopold is a clever boy when he leaves his home and his family, imagining his future as a grand adventure and an opportunity to leave his boring life. In this, he is typical. In
Leo's story is told through vivid flashbacks that start out cohesive and realistic and in the end are symbolic and more imagined than real. Everything about this book is brilliant, from the actual story of Leo's life to the vibrant and creative way it's told to the everyday details of his experiences. To skip a single word in this masterpiece would be to lose out on a moment of beauty.
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everything else he is extraordinary. His antagonist is the Hunger Angel who follows him around waiting for him to be vulnerable. This is only one of the antagonists, though, in a tale of hope in a time of desperate measures. Leo's story is told through vivid flashbacks that start out cohesive and realistic and in the end are symbolic and more imagined than real. Everything about this book is brilliant, from the actual story of Leo's life to the vibrant and creative way it's told to the everyday details of his experiences. To skip a single word in this masterpiece would be to lose out on a moment of beauty.
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LibraryThing member justablondemoment
Thank you to the early review program for this book.
WOW!! This was a very stark bleak look at a very sad time in history. My heart felt like it was being clutched in the palm of the books plot and being squeezed. Breathless and speechless all I can do is recommend this book and sit stunned.
WOW!! This was a very stark bleak look at a very sad time in history. My heart felt like it was being clutched in the palm of the books plot and being squeezed. Breathless and speechless all I can do is recommend this book and sit stunned.
LibraryThing member xmaystarx
The Hunger Angel is an intense,poetic , and dark novel. A narrative of a young man in a forced labor camp. I'm afraid I read this at a time when I couldn't fully commit my attention to it. I didn't give Herta Muller's work the effort it deserved due to a hectic personal time. I recognize her
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distinct way of describing so many things, including feelings. Sheis obviously a talented writer. This book should interest those that enjoy stories from WWII and the holocaust as well as those who enjoy a slow moving narrative with layers of description. Show Less
LibraryThing member Litfan
This is certainly not a light-hearted read; it is incredibly intense, and the horrors of forced labor so starkly captured that at times I needed to walk away from it. But it is a truly talented author who can keep a reader engaged in a story so profoundly sad.
The story is narrated by Leo, a 17
I can honestly say that I didn’t feel a deep connection to any of the characters, and this is typically quite important to me in reading a novel. However, deep character development would have been superfluous in an already very rich novel, and it’s a brilliant writer who can render character development superfluous. This is a truly profound novel that will likely expose new meanings with each reread.
The story is narrated by Leo, a 17
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year old German living in Romania, who is conscripted into a Russian labor camp for 5 years. The author does a stunning job of using language to convey the ugly reality of the camp (and sometimes, moments of deep humanity in the midst of the brutality). This is not a story focused on character development or relationships; it is all about illuminating for the reader a darkened period of history, through the eyes of an everyman, Leo. Through the use of metaphor and language, the psychological impact of the camp, and its echo in Leo’s remaining years, is deftly captured and conveyed. I can honestly say that I didn’t feel a deep connection to any of the characters, and this is typically quite important to me in reading a novel. However, deep character development would have been superfluous in an already very rich novel, and it’s a brilliant writer who can render character development superfluous. This is a truly profound novel that will likely expose new meanings with each reread.
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LibraryThing member HadriantheBlind
Exile, hunger. The hunger angel is not a kind and gentle cherub, but like a Gnostic messenger of God's will, or the angel of death. Its constant presence gnaws away at those within the camp.
This reminds me of both Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Victor Frankl, but with a unique description, almost
This reminds me of both Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Victor Frankl, but with a unique description, almost
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tender in its starkness. Double dispossession - being a German in Romania, and a German in the Soviet Union. Little details of work camp life which stand out. Show Less
LibraryThing member drachenbraut23
There’s the boredom of wasted conversations, not to mention opportunities. Even the simplest request takes many words, and there’s no guarantee that any one of them will do the trick. I often avoid conversations, and when I seek them out, I am afraid of them,......
Herta Müller actually
I have read the book in German and in the English translation to be able to see how the prose poetry is conveyed. I felt that the book was translated brilliantly but that some of the strength of her writing got lost in translation.
Reading the book was not easy, even though (or because?) the language is truly expressive and, therefore, intellectually quite challenging. The story starts just behind the existential zero and at that with a highly artificial reality as well as a sensitive understanding of language. Herta Müller uses innovative and bizzare metaphors, personifications (cement, hunger, plants, everything lives) and the paradox. Thus, she created an alienating language which is disturbing and graphic at the same time. With that she succeeds to capture the mood – the experiences of severe, long, monotonous, incessant hunger, selfishness, meanness and solitude - which might not have been adequately expressed differently. Her writing is unsentimental and yet goes deep, there is nothing gaudy or unnecessarily dramatized, and yet it penetrates your innermost core. However, once I got into it and found the essential concentration the book became quickly intensely fascinating with its beautiful sweeping and extremely sad story without producing any kind of false consternation. The book is by no means about self-pity, but rather about the survival instinct of the main protagonist, the 17 year old Leopold Auberg. All events are told from his point of view, with the use of prose poetry and told in a sort of sad irony.
On the hunger angel
Hunger is an object.
The angel has climbed into my brain.
The angel doesn’t think. He thinks straight.
He’s never absent.
He knows my boundaries and he knows his direction.
He knows where I come from and he knows what he does to me.
He knew all of this before he met me, and he knows my future.
He lingers in every capillary like quicksilver. First a sweetness in my throat. Then pressure on my stomach and chest. The fear is too much.
Everything has become lighter.
The hunger angel leans to one side as he walks with open eyes. He staggers around in small circles and balances on my breath-swing. He knows the homesickness in the brain and the blind alleys in the air.
The air angel leans to the other side as he walks with open hunger.
He whispers to himself and to me: where there is loading there can also be unloading. He is of the same flesh that he is deceiving. Will have deceived.
He knows about saved bread and cheek-bread and he sends out the white hare.
He says he’s coming back but stays where he is.
When he comes, he comes with force.
It’s utterly clear:
1 shovel load = 1 gram bread.
Hunger is an object.
Absolute zero is that which cannot be expressed. And we agree, absolute zero and I, that absolute zero itself is beyond discussion, except in the most roundabout way. The zero’s wide-open mouth can eat but not speak. The zero encircles you with its strangling tenderness. An emergency exchange has no tolerance for compromise. It is urgent and direct, like:
1 shovel load = 1 gram bread.
Herta Müller actually
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planned to write this book together with Oskar Pastior, a German/Romanian poet. Oskar Pastior was from 1946 – 1949, with other ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe, in one of the forced labor camps of the USSR. Unfortunately, he died in 2006, and she had to write the book herself. The book is partly based on his experiences and on the experiences of other people Herta Müller knew, such as her own mother. Müller and Pastior still visited together, in 2004, the camp in which he spends almost five years of his young adult life.I have read the book in German and in the English translation to be able to see how the prose poetry is conveyed. I felt that the book was translated brilliantly but that some of the strength of her writing got lost in translation.
Reading the book was not easy, even though (or because?) the language is truly expressive and, therefore, intellectually quite challenging. The story starts just behind the existential zero and at that with a highly artificial reality as well as a sensitive understanding of language. Herta Müller uses innovative and bizzare metaphors, personifications (cement, hunger, plants, everything lives) and the paradox. Thus, she created an alienating language which is disturbing and graphic at the same time. With that she succeeds to capture the mood – the experiences of severe, long, monotonous, incessant hunger, selfishness, meanness and solitude - which might not have been adequately expressed differently. Her writing is unsentimental and yet goes deep, there is nothing gaudy or unnecessarily dramatized, and yet it penetrates your innermost core. However, once I got into it and found the essential concentration the book became quickly intensely fascinating with its beautiful sweeping and extremely sad story without producing any kind of false consternation. The book is by no means about self-pity, but rather about the survival instinct of the main protagonist, the 17 year old Leopold Auberg. All events are told from his point of view, with the use of prose poetry and told in a sort of sad irony.
On the hunger angel
Hunger is an object.
The angel has climbed into my brain.
The angel doesn’t think. He thinks straight.
He’s never absent.
He knows my boundaries and he knows his direction.
He knows where I come from and he knows what he does to me.
He knew all of this before he met me, and he knows my future.
He lingers in every capillary like quicksilver. First a sweetness in my throat. Then pressure on my stomach and chest. The fear is too much.
Everything has become lighter.
The hunger angel leans to one side as he walks with open eyes. He staggers around in small circles and balances on my breath-swing. He knows the homesickness in the brain and the blind alleys in the air.
The air angel leans to the other side as he walks with open hunger.
He whispers to himself and to me: where there is loading there can also be unloading. He is of the same flesh that he is deceiving. Will have deceived.
He knows about saved bread and cheek-bread and he sends out the white hare.
He says he’s coming back but stays where he is.
When he comes, he comes with force.
It’s utterly clear:
1 shovel load = 1 gram bread.
Hunger is an object.
Absolute zero is that which cannot be expressed. And we agree, absolute zero and I, that absolute zero itself is beyond discussion, except in the most roundabout way. The zero’s wide-open mouth can eat but not speak. The zero encircles you with its strangling tenderness. An emergency exchange has no tolerance for compromise. It is urgent and direct, like:
1 shovel load = 1 gram bread.
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LibraryThing member HippieLunatic
Such a beautifully painful story, written and translated with grace, this is the story of a forced laborer of German heritage in a rebuilding camp in the Soviet Union. The characters are all more than the skin and bones they become, both in the camp and in life after.
LibraryThing member BlackSheepDances
Lovely writing...made me go order more of her books. This is a brooding narrator who invents his own language...at times it feels strange and then later he uses those words again and it all makes perfect sense. The sense of atmosphere is strong and when he experiences pain, it is real for the
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reader. I am intrigued by what this novel has to say about language and communication, far even beyond plot. Show Less
LibraryThing member ReginaR
Profound, moving and disturbing. The prose is beautiful. This is a slow read, but worth the time.
LibraryThing member Helenliz
To say I enjoyed this is possibly the wrong choice of word, the subject matter is too harrowing for that, but it is admirably written and enthralling.
Leo is a German living in Romania when he is deported to work in the Russian labour camp. His Grandmother's last words to him are "I know you'll
So I can't say that I enjoyed it, but I certainly found something to admire in this book.
Leo is a German living in Romania when he is deported to work in the Russian labour camp. His Grandmother's last words to him are "I know you'll
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come back" and he hangs onto these words through what he relates. The title refers to the spirist of hunger that he imagine each person carries round with them in the camp - with the constant near starvation rations and the struggle just to survive. It's not an easy read, far too much pain and the more sordid side of humanity is presented to make it that, but it was hypnotic. There isn't a plot, as such; it's more a man who is disposed and the thoughts that occur to him. They aren't always coherent, they aren't always in any form of logical sequence and that combines with the quality of the writing to make this almost hallucinogenic at times. The sense of isolation, self reliance and a distance from time and place is all pervading. So I can't say that I enjoyed it, but I certainly found something to admire in this book.
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LibraryThing member xtien
Story about a young German who is taken to a labor camp in Russia as "wiedergutmachung". Life in the camp is horrible, people die, there's constant hunger. Mueller wrote the book after talking to someone who had actually been in such a camp. If the person hadn't died before Mueller wrote the book,
It's a fascinating novel, very well written. It reads like poetry (I read it in German, I don't know if the same is true for translations). I'll say it again: it's very well written.
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they would have written it together.It's a fascinating novel, very well written. It reads like poetry (I read it in German, I don't know if the same is true for translations). I'll say it again: it's very well written.
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LibraryThing member xtien
Story about a young German who is taken to a labor camp in Russia as "wiedergutmachung". Life in the camp is horrible, people die, there's constant hunger. Mueller wrote the book after talking to someone who had actually been in such a camp. If the person hadn't died before Mueller wrote the book,
It's a fascinating novel, very well written. It reads like poetry (I read it in German, I don't know if the same is true for translations). I'll say it again: it's very well written.
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they would have written it together.It's a fascinating novel, very well written. It reads like poetry (I read it in German, I don't know if the same is true for translations). I'll say it again: it's very well written.
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LibraryThing member wrmjr66
Other reviewers have covered the plot of this outstanding novel, so I thought I would comment briefly on the stylistic innovations. Each "chapter" is a bit like a mini essay; in fact, many of them are named like early essays from Bacon and Montaigne (e.g., "On..."). The chapters are mostly in the
The result is a novel that is still easy to follow but focuses much more heavily on the interiority of the characters and the themes that Muller wants to bring to the fore. With a novel like this one, it is hard to argue that Muller is deserving of her Nobel prize.
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order of the events, though there are flashbacks and hints of future events throughout. So instead of being focused on the plot, each chapter is more focused on a topic or a character who Leo interacts with.The result is a novel that is still easy to follow but focuses much more heavily on the interiority of the characters and the themes that Muller wants to bring to the fore. With a novel like this one, it is hard to argue that Muller is deserving of her Nobel prize.
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Awards
Dublin Literary Award (Longlist — 2014)
Best Translated Book Award (Shortlist — 2013)
National Translation Award (Winner — 2013)
Globe and Mail Top 100 Book (2012)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2009 (original German)
2012 (English: Boehm)
Physical description
304 p.; 8.5 inches
ISBN
9781846272981
Local notes
Donated by Caitlin Westropp-Evans February 2024