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Tauben im Gras; Das Treibhaus; Der Tod in Rom

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Wolfgang Koeppen alcanzó la celebridad con sus tres novelas Palomas en la hierba, El invernadero y Muerte en Roma, todas ellas escritas en los años cincuenta. Palomas en la hierba fue escrita poco después de la reforma monetaria, «cuando empezó el milagro económico en la parte occidental de Alemania». Koeppen hace una descripción descarnada de una sociedad abrumada por los rastros de la guerra, una sociedad que analiza en términos políticos en El invernadero, en busca de los residuos de aquellas ideologías y comportamientos que llevaron al fascismo y a la guerra. Muerte en Roma es la historia de un puñado de personas que coincide en esta ciudad después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Es en Roma donde el pasado sale a la luz y se enreda con el presente. La crudeza con que Koeppen trata en estas tres novelas temas considerados tabú y su crítica social feroz del clima en Alemania después de la guerra provocó en aquella época críticas muy distintas.

599 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

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About the author

Wolfgang Koeppen

70 books44 followers
Wolfgang Arthur Reinhold Koeppen (June 23, 1906 – March 15, 1996) was a German novelist and one of the best known German authors of the post-war period.
Koeppen was born out of wedlock in Greifswald, Pomerania to Marie Köppen, a seamstress who also worked as a prompter at the Greifswald theater. He did not have contact with his father, ophthalmologist Reinhold Halben, who never formally accepted the fatherhood. In 1920, Koeppen left Greifswald permanently, and after 20 years of moving about, settled in Munich, living there the remainder of his life.
He started out as a journalist. In 1934 his first novel appeared while he was in the Netherlands. In 1947, Koeppen received a book contract to rewrite the memoirs of the philatelist and Holocaust survivor Jakob Littner (born 1883 in Budapest, died 1950 in New York City). The resulting novel caused some controversy based on whether Koeppen was given a written manuscript to guide his work on Littner, and the novel never sold well. In 1992, a new edition was published, which led to the discovery of Littner's original text. In 2000, Littner's original manuscript was published in English and in 2002, in German.
In 1951, Koeppen had published his novel Tauben im Gras (Pigeons on the Grass), which utilized a stream of consciousness literary technique and is considered a significant work of German-language literature by Germany's foremost literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki. "Das Treibhaus" (1953) was translated into English as "The Hothouse" (2001) and was named a Notable Book by the "New York Times" and one of the Best Books of the Year by the "Los Angeles Times." Koeppen's last major novel Der Tod in Rom (Death in Rome) was published in 1954. In the ensuing years, Koeppen found it difficult to complete longer works.

Between 1962 and 1987, Koeppen received numerous literary prizes in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1962 he was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize.

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Profile Image for Raphaela Strohmayer.
502 reviews1 follower
September 26, 2021
I listened to all the 3 books in the car and its safe tosay that I understood nothing. The noises were frightening, once i actually thought i was driving over a cat and the stories were just not stories. I didnt even realise once they were over. I dont know what this was, I cant even really say anything to the contentn, other than it was in the 1950s. I do not recommend.
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