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Jenny Erpenbeck - Visitation

A literary mosaic of the horrors of twentieth century Germany filtered through the beauty of one house and the landscape it鈥檚 rooted in.

This month World Book Club is in Germany marking the 30th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall with a programme from the St George鈥檚 Bookshop in the heart of the capital. We鈥檙e speaking with one of the country鈥檚 greatest living writers Jenny Erpenbeck about her highly acclaimed novel, Visitation.

Visitation鈥檚 central character is a beguiling house on the forested banks of a lake in Brandenburg near Berlin, which is inhabited by various occupants, one dislodging the next over the course of a turbulent century of upheaval and calamity. Encompassing the years from the Weimar Republic, through World War II to the subsequent Soviet-led Communist regime, and finally to reunification and its aftermath, Visitation forms a literary mosaic of the horrors of twentieth century German history filtered through the beauty of one house and the landscape it鈥檚 rooted in.

(Image: Jenny Erpenbeck. Credit: Katharina Behling.)

Available now

50 minutes

Last on

Thu 12 Dec 2019 00:06GMT

Broadcasts

  • Sun 8 Dec 2019 03:06GMT
  • Sun 8 Dec 2019 14:06GMT
  • Sun 8 Dec 2019 15:06GMT
  • Wed 11 Dec 2019 09:06GMT
  • Thu 12 Dec 2019 00:06GMT

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