Tristan da Cunha oder die Hälfte der Erde

by Raoul Schrott

Eine winzige Insel im Ozean als Brennpunkt der Sehnsucht von vier drei Männer und eine Frau, deren Leben und deren Liebesgeschichten bestimmt werden von dem entlegensten Ort der Welt. Tristan da Cunha, in dessen Namen der mythische Liebende anklingt; ein Vulkan mitten im Atlantik, im Dreieck zwischen Brasilien, der Antarktis und Südafrika. Raoul Schrott verbindet in seinem großen, vieldimensionalen Roman fesselnde Schicksale, schroffe Landschaften, unstillbare Passionen und Obsessionen. Ein zeitloser Roman und doch ein Zeitbild von fünf Jahrhunderten Weltgeschichte.

Genres: Fiction, German Literature

714 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Prof. dr. Raoul Schrott, is an Austrian poet, writer, literary critic, translator and broadcast personality.

Schrott was raised in Tunis where his father served as an Austrian sales representative. He attended the universities of Norwich, Paris, Berlin and Innsbruck where he studied comparative literature and linguistics.

He was an assistant to French surrealistic poet Philippe Soupault. He earned his PhD in philology (combining linguistics and literary studies), and currently works as professor on many Austrian and foreign universities. He was very much interested in Dada and surrealism movement, and Schrott completed a thesis on 'Dada 1921 - 1922 in Tyrol'. He translated Homer's writings and modern adaptation of the Babylonian-Assyrian Epic of Gilgamesh into German.

Dr. Schrott is a polyglot, particularly acknowledged for his foreign language skills such as Breton, Basque and Occitan, but he also speaks English, French, Italian, Corsican and Gaelic.

Reviews

[Anna Carina]

Lyrische Sprache, grandiose Naturbeschreibungen
4 Blickwinkel aus verschiedenen Jahrhunderten
Wenig Plot
Viel Forschung, Zahlen, Daten, Analysen, Dokumentationen
Das ist ultra anstrengend und fordernd zu lesen
Komm ich grad nicht drauf klar

[Oceana2602 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm impressed. Schrott's writing is marvelous. I really really didn't expect this from a German author I had for some reason never heard of before, especially not after the last few German books that had been recommended all over the place turned out to be overrated pseudo-intellectual combinations of random words.

Tristan da Cunha, however, is simply a beautiful book - an intelligent combination of different stories about the Island Tristan da Cunha, though, really, about the people who came and lived there, about its history and about life. And did I mention the beautiful writing?

So, now that we've established that it's a good book, I feel as if I should mention that I didn't particularly enjoy it. I was simply not interested in the story. I feel a bit bad about this, because it really is beautiful, and I blame it more on my current real life situation, that just doesn't give me the patience to read through 600+ pages of history, than on Schrott's writing. It's definitely not the author's fault.

I gave the book four stars anyway, because I want to like it as much as it deserves to be liked. Maybe one day I will go ona cruise through Antarctica and sit on the deck reading this book every day. I wonder if they have waiters serving hot chocolate on these cruises...

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a phenomenal novel, as to the varied contence and literary intertextual connotations, as to the structure and as to stylistic aspects. Extraordinary achievement by the Austrian composer of stories and themes. Later more. There is a lot to be said about this magnum opus of Raoul Schrott. (main themes: the longing for love; characters who endure harsh circumstances; Nature!!) JM