Book Reviews
Literature - Ubiquitous in the Alps
We love to read! In this section we will introduce you on a monthly basis to different novels, criminal stories, fairy tales, short stories or any other literaturary style, which take place or were written in the Alps. We will try to give you a broad overview of renown authors as well as newcomers and contemporary writers. And we will mention which of these books are suitable as a companion to your next trip to the Alps.
About Ravens / Über Raben
Hochgatterer, Paulus: Über Raben. 2002
A ski mountaineer and a teenager, she is in high school, he is a teach. For both "death" is a central theme, furthermore there is a lot imagination and will. And in is in the middle of winter, end of January, shortly before semester break.
While the teacher is climbing up the Styrian Alps with a shot gun and looking for a hideaway in a cave, she is attending school, likes to ventilate the flat with fresh and chilly air and loves to think of ways of dying. This book is a total cliffhanger, not only because the teacher himself is hanging over a wintery Alpine cliff, because both protagonistas are dangling over the precipice of their lifes and the novel is lacking an end. Who died? Did somebody die? Are both murderers? None of them? What is the teacher trying to escape from? Why is the girl living all alone?
It is a book about Alpinism, Hochgatterer himself might be a passionate mountaineer and ski, it is a book about school and a crime story, without crime. Or was there one? Up there in the mountains, we do find him finally, the raven, the one from the title and the book cover.
This book is definitely suitable for a book club and literature circle. There are lot of aspects, but hardly any strands are put together, or are they, are enough hints in the text? Perfect discussion material to fill an evening we suggest.
Paulus Hochgatterer is no full time writer, he is renowned psychiatrists for children and teenager. It might be his work experience, that gives him the experience and the empathy on other people and leads to incredible protagonists. Born 1961 in Amstetten, Austria, he wrote more then a handful of novels and received several awards.
Unfortunately the book "About Ravens" is not translated into English and only available in German.
Ravens are not available at MiaDeRoca Webshop, but several great bags to keep all your readings:
18.06.2009. 16:06