Go, Went, Gone
Jenny Erpenbeck
(Author)
Susan Bernofsky
(Translator)
21,000+ Reviews
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Description
Go, Went, Gone is the masterful new novel by the acclaimed German writer Jenny Erpenbeck, "one of the most significant German-language novelists of her generation" (The Millions). The novel tells the tale of Richard, a retired classics professor who lives in Berlin. His wife has died, and he lives a routine existence until one day he spies some African refugees staging a hunger strike in Alexanderplatz. Curiosity turns to compassion and an inner transformation, as he visits their shelter, interviews them, and becomes embroiled in their harrowing fates. Go, Went, Gone is a scathing indictment of Western policy toward the European refugee crisis, but also a touching portrait of a man who finds he has more in common with the Africans than he realizes. Exquisitely translated by Susan Bernofsky, Go, Went, Gone addresses one of the most pivotal issues of our time, facing it head-on in a voice that is both nostalgic and frightening.
Product Details
Price
$16.95
$15.76
Publisher
New Directions Publishing Corporation
Publish Date
September 26, 2017
Pages
320
Dimensions
5.3 X 0.8 X 7.9 inches | 0.7 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9780811225946
BISAC Categories:
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About the Author
Jenny Erpenbeck was born in East Berlin in 1967. New Directions publishes her books The Old Child & Other Stories, The Book of Words, and Visitation, which NPR called a story of the century as seen by the objects we've known and lost along the way.
For New Directions, Susan Bernofsky has translated Yoko Tawada's Where Europe Begins, The Naked Eye, and Memoirs of a Polar Bear (winner of the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation), eight titles by the great Swiss-German modernist Robert Walser, and five books by Jenny Erpenbeck, including The End of Days (winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize). She is the author of Clairvoyant of the Small: The Life of Robert Walser, and teaches at Columbia University, where she also directs the literary translation program.
Reviews
Dreamlike, almost incantatory prose.
Erpenbeck's prose, intense and fluent, is luminously translated by Susan Bernofsky.--James Wood
Wonderful, elegant, and exhilarating, ferocious as well as virtuosic.--Deborah Eisenberg
A nuanced depiction of people who have largely given up the luxury of hope and have little to do but wait. Erpenbeck bluntly reminds readers what is at stake for Germany and, by extension, the world. A timely, informed, and moving novel of political fury.--Brendan Driscoll"Go, Went, Gone" (08/15/2017)
Erpenbeck is scathing about the absurdities of a nightmarish bureaucracy that appears to deliberately wrongfoot refugees. Deceptively unhurried, yet undeniably urgent, this is Erpenbeck's most significant work to date.
An extraordinary novel, bearing unflinching testament to history as it unfolds.--Neel Mukherjee (08/15/2017)
A retired widower and classics professor takes an interest in African migrants staging a hunger strike in Berlin and finds himself tumbling into a world of harrowing stories and men who share a common sense of loss.
This timely novel brings together a retired classics professor in Berlin and a group of African refugees. The risk of didacticism is high, but the book's rigor and crystalline insights pay off, aesthetically and morally.
A highly sophisticated work.--Kate Web"Jenny Erpenbeck finds a novel way to tackle the migrant problem" (01/20/2018)
Calls to mind J.M. Coetzee, whose flat, affectless prose wrests coherence from immense social turmoil. By making the predicament of the refugee banal and quotidian, Erpenbeck helps it become visible.-- (09/22/2017)
This new novel by the author of The End of Days and Visitation is full of departures and disappearances. It is both a gripping story about the life of the modern migrant and a meditation on how we all find meaning in life.--Go, Went, Gone
Acclaimed German novelist Jenny Erpenbeck has gone further than most in examining the ephemeral nature of human life. A heart-rending plea for universal tolerance and respect.-- (10/18/2017)
The plight of asylum seekers as told through a retired university professor...Very moving.--Carol Morely "Guardian 2018 Best Summer Books "
This brilliantly understated novel traces with uncommon delicacy and depth the interior transformation of a retired German classicist named Richard. Erpenbeck possesses an uncanny ability to portray the mundane interactions and routines that compose everyday life, which she elevates into an intimately moving meditation on one of the great issues of our times. Her economical prose lends existential significance to the most commonplace conversations, defined less by what they include than by what they omit.--Andrew Moravcsik
Beautifully haunting.-- (07/15/2019)
Erpenbeck's prose, intense and fluent, is luminously translated by Susan Bernofsky.--James Wood
Wonderful, elegant, and exhilarating, ferocious as well as virtuosic.--Deborah Eisenberg
A nuanced depiction of people who have largely given up the luxury of hope and have little to do but wait. Erpenbeck bluntly reminds readers what is at stake for Germany and, by extension, the world. A timely, informed, and moving novel of political fury.--Brendan Driscoll"Go, Went, Gone" (08/15/2017)
Erpenbeck is scathing about the absurdities of a nightmarish bureaucracy that appears to deliberately wrongfoot refugees. Deceptively unhurried, yet undeniably urgent, this is Erpenbeck's most significant work to date.
An extraordinary novel, bearing unflinching testament to history as it unfolds.--Neel Mukherjee (08/15/2017)
A retired widower and classics professor takes an interest in African migrants staging a hunger strike in Berlin and finds himself tumbling into a world of harrowing stories and men who share a common sense of loss.
This timely novel brings together a retired classics professor in Berlin and a group of African refugees. The risk of didacticism is high, but the book's rigor and crystalline insights pay off, aesthetically and morally.
A highly sophisticated work.--Kate Web"Jenny Erpenbeck finds a novel way to tackle the migrant problem" (01/20/2018)
Calls to mind J.M. Coetzee, whose flat, affectless prose wrests coherence from immense social turmoil. By making the predicament of the refugee banal and quotidian, Erpenbeck helps it become visible.-- (09/22/2017)
This new novel by the author of The End of Days and Visitation is full of departures and disappearances. It is both a gripping story about the life of the modern migrant and a meditation on how we all find meaning in life.--Go, Went, Gone
Acclaimed German novelist Jenny Erpenbeck has gone further than most in examining the ephemeral nature of human life. A heart-rending plea for universal tolerance and respect.-- (10/18/2017)
The plight of asylum seekers as told through a retired university professor...Very moving.--Carol Morely "Guardian 2018 Best Summer Books "
This brilliantly understated novel traces with uncommon delicacy and depth the interior transformation of a retired German classicist named Richard. Erpenbeck possesses an uncanny ability to portray the mundane interactions and routines that compose everyday life, which she elevates into an intimately moving meditation on one of the great issues of our times. Her economical prose lends existential significance to the most commonplace conversations, defined less by what they include than by what they omit.--Andrew Moravcsik
Beautifully haunting.-- (07/15/2019)
