الملاك الصامت

by Heinrich Böll, هاينريش بول, طلعت الشايب (Translator)

The first novel by the Nobel prize winner, but not published until after his death. Written at the end of the Second World War it describes the death and destruction faced by the people of a city ravaged by war.

Genres: Fiction, Germany, German Literature, War, Historical Fiction, World War II, Classics

222 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1992

About the author

Der deutsche Schriftsteller und Übersetzer gilt als einer der bedeutendsten deutschen Autoren der Nachkriegszeit. Er schrieb Gedichte, Kurzgeschichten und Romane, von denen auch einige verfilmt wurden. Dabei setzte er sich kritisch mit der jungen Bundesrepublik auseinander. Zu seinen erfolgreichsten Werken zählen "Billard um halbzehn", "Ansichten eines Clowns" und "Gruppenbild mit Dame". Den Nobelpreis für Literatur bekam Heinrich Böll 1972; er war nach 43 Jahren der erste deutsche Schriftsteller, dem diese Auszeichnung zuteil wurde. 1974 erschien sein wohl populärstes Werk, "Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum". Durch sein politisches Engagement wirkte er, gemeinsam mit seinem Freund Lew Kopelew, auf die europäische Literatur der Nachkriegszeit. Darüber hinaus arbeitete Böll gemeinsam mit seiner Frau Annemarie als Herausgeber und Übersetzer englischsprachiger Werke ins Deutsche...

Heinrich Böll became a full-time writer at the age of 30. His first novel, Der Zug war pünktlich (The Train Was on Time), was published in 1949. Many other novels, short stories, radio plays, and essay collections followed. In 1972 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature "for his writing which through its combination of a broad perspective on his time and a sensitive skill in characterization has contributed to a renewal of German literature." He was the first German-born author to receive the Nobel Prize since Hermann Hesse in 1946. His work has been translated into more than 30 languages, and he is one of Germany's most widely read authors.

Reviews

[Will Byrnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was Nobel-prize-winner Boll’s first novel was not published when he wrote it in 1950, but in 1992, with an English translation in 1994. Boll had mined the work for use in later works.

Hans, a deserter from the German army at the end of World War II, returns to his home town. He is delivering a dead soldier’s coat to his widow. The will that is sewn into its lining is central to the core of the story. The dead soldier had been well off and his family would rather not face having to share his estate with his widow. After seeking food and help in finding the widow at a Catholic Church, Hans makes the acquaintance of a woman whose child died when Americans invaded the city. They become lovers.


Heinrich Böll - image from The Irish Times

Hans struggles with issues of physical survival and moral clarity. Bread is a central image. Sustenance can be both physical and moral. Hans seeks food when we first meet him, but the church that feeds him physically becomes a source of moral sustenance as well. In one unsubtle reference, the priest gives Hans not only bread but a bottle of wine as well. (elements of Catholic communion). Hans ultimately returns to the church wholly.

Boll’s bleak, rubble-strewn, postwar landscape is busy with references to light and dark. Almost every page makes some use of darkness, or sun. The ruins here are not only of the unnamed city but of the characters’ lives. Hans has lost his young wife. A grieving mother has lost her baby. Another young woman is on her deathbed. A man is losing his adult daughter.

Identification is primary here as well. Hans is traveling with forged papers, gets more false papers. Who is he really? What will he will himself to be?

Time heals wounds, or does it?

The date of the destruction of any particular ruin could be determined by its overgrowth: it was a question of botany. This heap of rubble was naked and barred, raw stone, newly broken masonry, piled thickly, violently, with iron beams jutting out, sowing scarcely a spot of rust. There wasn’t a blade of grass to be seen; while in other places trees were already growing, charming little trees in bedrooms and kitchens, close by the rusty shell of the burned-out stove.

People struggle with growing, accepting, moving on.

She was secretly cursing the sudden impulse that had led her to clean the room. Where had it come from? She didn’t know. The desire for order and cleanliness was totally new, and she knew that it was senseless. Everything had seemed cleaner before: spots and ugly circles were now visible where she had damp-mopped the floor, ancient ground-in chalk that hadn’t been noticeable before. All her efforts had served only to reveal a strange, transparent film of repulsive stains that appeared ineradicable…an infinite expanse of dirt appeared that now threw her into despair, and against which all struggle was useless.

I was much taken with Boll’s rich use of language. Reading The Silent Angel was like eating a torte, dense, filling. I found that I thought about the book after I had read it much more than is usual for me. Potent imagery plus evocative language, plus moral substance equals a pretty good read.

[Semjon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Diese posthum veröffentlichte Werk hat es auf jeden Fall verdient, doch noch Licht der Leserschaft zu erblicken. Normalerweise bin ich skeptisch, bei solchen Nachlässen. Ich denke mir dann, dass Autorin bzw. Autor ja die bewusste Entscheidung getroffen hatte, das Werk nicht zu veröffentlichen. Warum ihnen dann nachträglich in den Rücken fallen. Hier war es anders, denn Böll wollte den Roman Anfang der 50er Jahre herausbringen, doch der Verlag lehnte diese Art von Trümmerliteratur ab. Diese Leute wollte nach deren Ansicht nicht an die Schrecken erinnert werden. Also zertückelte er den Roman und brachte Teile in Erzählungen unter.

Gerade die Bedeutung des Brots für hungernden Personen in dem Buch erinnerte mich an "Das Brot der frühen Jahre". Böll schrieb dieses Erstlingswerk schon sehr gekonnt, äußerst atmosphärisch und symbolträchtig. Man hat beim Lesen das Gefühl, den sich den nur langsam verziehenden Kalkstaub der Trümmer am 08.05.1945 in Köln noch zu schmecken. Eine bewegende Geschichte, die trotz der vielen Tragik am Ende eine Hoffnung bietet, ohne dabei kitschig zu wirken. Mein Lieblingsschriftersteller Ende der 80er Jahre, den ich komplett gelesen habe.

[Paria · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب روایتی از جنگ جهانی دومه. در حقیقت از لحظه ی آتش بس و پایان جنگ شروع میشه. فقر و فقر و فقر و گرسنگی... یه سرباز فراری از جنگ که بعد از بازگشت به شهر با ویرانه های شهرش مواجه میشه و تلاش میکنه از گرسنگی نجات پیدا کنه.

این کتاب اولین اثر هاینریش بل هستش که سال ها پس از مرگش منتشر میشه. ازونجایی که اولین اثرشه، قبل از خوندنش تصورم این بود که احتمالا خیلی جذاب نخواهد بود. ولی واقعا اشتباه میکردم. من واقعا خوشم اومد و دوستش داشتم.. به طور کلی، اون سبک همیشگی بل، حتی توی اولین کتابش هم مشهوده..

[Banu Yıldıran Genç · Rating 3 out of 5]

sosyal medyada klavyede savaşçılık oynamaya çalışanlara, etrafımızdaki savaşlara simulasyon gözüyle bakanlara, vay efendim savaştayken niye çocuk yapmışlar diye söylenenlere bu kitabı kafalarına vura vura okutmak isterdim.
böll’ün yazdığı ikinci roman sanırım. kendi hayatından esintiler var epey. işin ilginç tarafı bu romanın almanya’da da 1992’ye kadar basılmamış olması. halbuki böll’ün yeteneğini çok net belli etmiş.
bu kez ilk romanlardan olduğu için belki diyalog ağırlıklı değil, betimlemeler daha çok. yıkıntılar içindeki bir şehri -muhtemelen köln- böylesine gerçekçi okumak ve bunun ustalıkla yapılması tüylerimi diken diken etti. hele o açlık, yani knut hamsun geldi aklıma ama böll daha başarılı bir yazar. o açlık insanı mahvedebilir. bu insanların böyle bir yaşamdan şimdiki almanya’ya nasıl geldikleri ise yine şaşkınlık duymama sebep oldu.
elbette böll’ün savaş zenginleri burada da var. parayla, insan hayatıyla, kimliklerle, kiliseyle, orduyla işlerine geldiği gibi oynayan, hep zengin yine zengin insanlar. kötülükleri bile sıkıcı.
böll’ün acemiliği bence bu romanda en çok duyguların anlatımından ve tek önemli kadın karakter olan regina’yı neredeyse hiç derinleştirememesinden anlaşılıyor. regina ruh gibi bir varlık, olsa da olur olmasa da gibi romanda.
hans’ı ise varoluş krizleri sırasında dövesim geldi. regina zar zor odun kırarken arpacı kumrusu gibi tavana bakıp hayatı sorguluyor. neyse sona doğru kendine geldi, çok şükür.
almanya’yı ve savaş sonrası yıkımını en iyi anlatan romanlardan bence. çeviri de çok iyi. çok şükür can yayınları böll’leri tekrar basıyor.

[Amir · Rating 3 out of 5]

یه رمان هاینریش بلی. رمان جز اولین کارهای هاینریش بل هست اما سال‌ها بعد از به شهرت رسیدن بل به چاپ رسیده. قصه این بار از روز اعلام آتش‌بس جنگ جهانی دوم شروع میشه. دغدغه‌های بل همون دغدغه‌های همیشگی هست، اما با رنگ و بوی انتقادی کمتر. قهرمان این رمان هم در جستجوی «نان» هست. هانس این رمان هم با نهاد کلیسا و نظام ازدواج سنتی مشکل داره، اما هنوز به اندازه‌ی دلقک عصیان‌کار و سازش‌ناپذیر نیست.
رمان تا فصل دهم عالی پیش میره، اما از فصل یازدهم به بعد به شدت افت می‌کنه و خرده روایت‌ها لای چرخ‌دنده‌ی ریتم رمان گیر می‌کنن. (توی موخره نوشته که بین نوشتن بخش‌های کتاب فاصله افتاده و یک‌نفس نوشته نشده. شک ندارم بعد از فصل ده بل یه توقف اساسی کرده.) این وضعیت همین‌جور ادامه پیدا می‌کنه تا برسه به بخش هجدهم که برگ برنده‌ی کتاب هست. تصویر کردن لحظات مرگ... اگه از هر نویسنده‌ای انتظار نداشته باشید که بتونه لحظات مرگ رو به اندازه‌ی تولستوی توی «مرگ ایوان ایلیچ» باورپذیر و نفس‌گیر تصویر کنه، این بخش رو بهتون توصیه می‌کنم

[AC · Rating 3 out of 5]

(I am currently reading Billiards at Half-Past Nine. I thought that Silent Angel was good, I guess, when I read it - because the topic was of interest to me. But now I see it is merely juvenalia and have lowered my rating (from 4) to 3. Nothing in it prepared me for the mature Böll, which is now overwhelming me.)

Written in 1950, this book was not published until 1992 - 7 years after Heinrich Böll's death. Apparently the nation could not cope with a book of this sort. The reasons for this are well explained by Sebald, who discusses the 'cultural amnesia' that has afflicted Germany since the end of WWII - (in the Natural HIstory of Destruction). At any rate, this is one of the better examples of what is known as Trümmerliteratur -- much of which, to listen to Sebald, is rather sentimental and kitschy.

This was also Böll's first novel -- he was 33 when it was written. But it is already a mature work, and does not have the feel of juvenalia about it. Some of the writting is both beautiful and insightful.

The second half is devoted to finding meaning in the 'Catastrophe' (that is, the events in Germany just after Capitulation), and appeals to Böll's deeply held Catholicism. Böll was from the south of Germany.

Though I am not a Catholic, I have occasionally found Catholic literature to be quite moving. Georges Bernanos' Diary of a Country Priest, for example, breaths this same atmosphere of poignant hopefullness in the midst of despair that one finds to some degree in The Silent Angel. But as I am not a believer, I found Böll's faith somewhat distressing, and that detracted (for me) from the value of this book.

Nonetheless, this is definitely a book worth reading. I haven't read any other Böll yet (though I did read a short story of his in German once back in graduate school - in German for Reading), and plan to read Billiards in the next week or two.

[Sarah ~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

الملاك الصامت - هاينريش بول

كانت القراءة لهاينريش بول أمرًا أتوق له منذ وقت طويل، ولعل أول ما يتبادر إلى ذهني عندما يذكر هاينريش بول ليسَ أعماله الأدبية بل نشاطه السياسي ودعوته للسلام ورفضه للشمولية وتعسف السلطة والتسلح بكل أشكاله وخاصة سباق التسلح النووي .
في هذه الرواية يروي قصة جنديٍ عاد إلى مدينته المدمرة في نهاية الحرب العالمية الثانية وهو مستغرقٌ بالنجاة ومعه كل مجتمع ما بعد الحرب وتصور كذلك بؤس المرحلة وفسادها، وتعود الأحداث لاحقًا إلى بداية الحرب .
عمل بسيط ومكتوب بشكل جميل لكن لم تعجبني الترجمة ..

[Özgür · Rating 4 out of 5]

Böll'ün ilk romanı olan ama 1992'ye kadar yayımlanmayan kitap savaşın yarattığı sefaleti etkileyici bir şekilde aktarıyor. Sebald'ın Hava Savaşı ve Edebiyat'ında savaş sonrası Almanya'daki yıkımı anlatan nadir kitaplardan biri olarak bahsedilince okumak istemiştim. Bu açıdan tatmin edici bir okumaydı.

[Lea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts out excellent, but doesn't fully come together and feels a little like a sketch, especially the quick ending and the love story. Since the novel wasn't published when it was originally meant to in the 50s but instead decades later, maybe it would have been edited to make it very good instead of just good. You really get a feeling for Germany days after the war ended, the hopelessness and the hunger. Böll is amazing at evoking these feelings.

[Rise · Rating 4 out of 5]

As noted by W. G. Sebald in his book of literary criticism On the Natural History of Destruction, Heinrich Böll's The Silent Angel was one of only a handful of postwar novels that depicted the aftermath of intensive carpet bombing leveled against Germany in the second world war. Though written early in Böll's career, the novel was not published in his lifetime due to the subject matter that was perceived by his publisher as unpalatable to the German public. Isn't it inappropriate to dwell on a topic that brings home the very episodes one wanted to forget? After so much destruction and suffering, is it not perhaps best to move on to cheery stories?

Böll described the wasteland of war-torn Germany right after the end of the bombings. Amid this tortured landscape the characters moved like zombies, traumatized by their experiences and haunted by relentless hunger. The lack of food and shelter consigned the majority of the citizens to the status of refugees. They lived only to survive hunger, scrounging for the rare bread and provisions that came at high prices.

At the start of the novel, Hans, a German soldier who lacked proper identification, stumbled into a hospital and was offered a bread loaf by a nun working there. The reader was given a first taste of the novel's subject.

   Quickly he broke off a large piece of the bread. His chin trembled and he felt the muscles of his mouth and jaws twitch. Then he buried his teeth in the soft, uneven place where the bread had been broken, and bit in. The loaf was old, at least four or five days old, perhaps even older, plain brown bread bearing some bakery's red paper label; but it tasted so sweet. He bit in even more deeply, taking the leathery, brown crust into his mouth as well; then he seized the loaf in his hands and tore off a new piece. While he ate with his right hand he held the loaf fast in his left, as if someone might come and try to take it from him, and he saw his hand lying on the bread, thin and dirty, with a deep scratch that was soiled and scabbed.

There was pathetic beauty in the way Hans noted both the sweetness and the stale condition of the bread. The act of biting and chewing acquired a strong sense of concretion particularly when juxtaposed with the soiled and scabbed hand holding the bread. The attention paid to the color of the crust and the paper label seemed to celebrate the bread's providential existence.

It was notable that Hans was not only concerned with satisfying his hunger but with securing his identification papers. That he should lose his identity in the rubble and ruins, together with the experience of seeing his hometown burnt to the ground and his loved ones perish, made him a victim who almost didn't have anything more to lose.

Physical hunger and destroyed landscapes of the city inhabited the tissues of the novel. Hunger (and destruction) was so pervasive as to go beyond the realm of the physical. It crossed the threshold of the characters' physical state, to become the hunger of their souls, the debilitating poverty of spirit. It became the very fires in their belly that drove them to resist that very same hunger.

His heart kept on pounding. He was still thinking about the bread, and his heartbeat was like the gently painful yet pleasant throbbing of a wound: a large, raw spot in his chest, his heart.

---

   In the distance, beyond the community gardens, jutting high above the railway embankment, he saw the charred ruins of the city, a dark, ragged silhouette—he felt a deep, piercing pain and pulled the window closed again. Now, within, it was dim and quiet once more, shut off from the chirping of the birds. he now understood why she hadn't wanted to open the window.

Hunger and ruins were likened to a gaping wound in the heart, a source of pain. For the characters, hunger was a constant reminder that they were still alive.

Böll was able to illuminate a time that was barely recorded, even consciously avoided, according to Sebald—erased from memory, sanitized and repressed by German writers. It was not a popular subject but it was necessary to keep a record of destruction of cities and its effects on men and women. Sebald found in The Silent Angel not only an important subject but a quality of writing that he felt approached the gravity of the subject.

At the novel's center was a love story with a subplot of a family drama. Yet the plot was almost sketchy and directionless as to reflect the chaos of the cityscape. The imaginary was given up in favor of the imaginative.

The curtains had been pulled open, and in the large, black window frames stood the fantasylike image of the ruins: smoke-blackened flanks of buildings, cracked gables that seemed about to fall—overgrown mounds that had been ripped apart a second time, leaving only a few spots where the green was mossy and peaceful.

The above passage described the image of the ruins as "fantasylike" but the real view of destruction made the image un-fantasylike. The qualification of the smoke-blackened, cracked, overgrown, and ripped objects could not deny the direct harms inflicted to the people on the ground.

Likewise, Böll's similes and imagery were purposefully constructed. An open piano in a corner "stood like a monster with a thousand false teeth". In a particular ruin could be seen "only naked destruction, desolate and terribly empty, as if the breath of the bomb still hung in the air". That lingering "breath of the bomb" was sufficient to convey the utter "nakedness" of the damage.

A most powerful description of destruction was that of the silent statues in a church.

   His gaze remained below: the altar was buried in debris, the choir stalls had been toppled by the blast. He saw their broad brown backs inclined in what seemed sarcastic prayer. The lower rank of saints on the columns showed gaps as well: abraded torsos and flayed stone, hideous in its mutilation and painfully deformed, as if it once had been alive. He was struck by the demonic grotesqueness. A few faces grimaced like furious cripples because they lacked an ear or a chin, or because strange cracks deformed them; others were headless, and the stone stumps of their necks thrust up horribly from their bodies. Equally disturbing were those who lacked hands. They almost seemed to bleed, silently imploring, and a baroque plaster statue was oddly split, almost cracked like an egg: the pale plaster face of the saint was undamaged, the narrow, melancholy face of a Jesuit, but its chest and belly were ripped open. The plaster had trickled down—it lay in whitish flakes at the base of the figure—and from the dark hollow of the belly straw spilled forth, saturated with hardened plaster.

There's no ambiguity here as to why the mutilation of the statues displayed a "demonic grotesqueness". There's also no mystery as to who it was the personified stone ("as if it once had been alive") stood for. This posthumous horror was probably one of the most indirect and one of the most graphic descriptions of the aftermath of a night of "successful" bombing run a reader will encounter in fiction. (The sickening image of desecration reminded me of a scene at the end of José Saramago's Blindness, where a group of blind men and women made their way to a church where the "blind" statues of saints seemed to mock their tragic condition.)

Despite the depressing, vivid images in the novel, the reader could not fail to detect the deep sense of the novelist's humanity. He did not reduce his characters to virtual zombies. Instead, the novelist kept intact their human strengths and failings. His genuine compassion was evident in his nontrivial portraits of the human casualties of war.

Amid the the piles of debris in the city, the white powder chalk and plaster, signs of renewal of vegetation started to shoot up from the ground. From these bleak surroundings, Böll's beautiful prose was able to yield a comforting quality of tenderness, like the love story at its center. The words had lightness and softness, like sweet bread. It was not really all black smoke and white dust:

   He stood up, walked quietly over to the door, and opened it cautiously. Light was coming from the kitchen. The old, blue coat that she had draped over the windowpane let large, yellow beams of light in through its tattered holes, and the rays fell onto the debris in the hall: the axe blade gleamed somewhere and he saw the dark logs, their split surfaces glowing yellowly. He approached slowly and now he could see her. He realized he'd never seen her like this before. She was lying on the couch with her legs drawn up, wrapped in a large, red blanket, reading. He saw her from behind. Her long, damply shining hair seemed darker, tinged with red; it fell across the arm of the couch. A lamp stood beside her, and the stove was lit. A pack of cigarettes lay on the table, together with a jar of marmalade, a loaf of bread that had been cut into, and beside it the knife with its loose, black handle. . . .

The colors and sheen were so lovingly spread over this description of domestic setting and minutiae  as to drum up the characters' expectations of a return to peaceful, normal circumstances. There was a flicker of love in that passage, a sense that all was not lost. The sense that hunger (physical, spiritual) does not go unfulfilled. The pangs of hunger only served as their amulet.


First posted in my blog.

[Fotis Ips · Rating 4 out of 5]

Πρόκειται για ένα βιβλίο βαθιά ανθρώπινο, που χωρίς περιττές λεπτομέρειες και αναλύσεις διεισδύει στην ανθρώπινη ψυχή και στα τραύματα που αφήνει σε αυτήν ο πόλεμος.
Ο ήρωας μέσα από μία σύντομη πορεία που βλέπουμε στο βιβλίο, επιβιώνει από την πείνα, την εκμετάλλευση και την σκληρή πλευρά των ανθρώπων, χωρίς ωστόσο να είναι αρκετά αυτά που καταφέρνει να κερδίσει για να τον καλύψουν.
Μου έκανε εντύπωση η απλή γραφή του Μπέλ, που όμως είναι τόσο άμεση και έμμεση ταυτόχρονα για προβληματισμό και σκέψη. Οι τελευταίες σκηνές με το άγαλμα, υπέροχες.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 2nd Heinrich Boll book, and I am now a big fan. Very low key, understated; writing about horrors and everyday reality in Germany right after WWII. The Russians were sending everyone, and I do mean everyone to "camps". Really hard to find an identity card that looked good enough (no POW's, no refugees; pretty much anyone who had not stayed in the same spot they were in when the war began) to get a food rationing card for a crust of bread. The author lived through these times, but he is very matter-of-fact about whatever comes his way. So is everyone else. It's war, and it's not dramatic it's deadening to the spirit. Anyway--great book.

[Lena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Die Trümmerliteratur im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes - ein kurzer, fast dokumentationsartiger Einblick in die ersten Nachkriegstage: die unkenntlich gewordenen Straßen, die zerbombten Häuserskelette am Horizont und die Menschen, die den Gesetzen des Lebens folgend, versuchen, ihre Existenz weiterzuführen. Vom Krieg selbst ist jedoch kaum die Rede, die stumme Dekoration der Stadt ist aussagekräftig genug. Es ist das Menschliche, was in den Vordergrund gerückt wird - wie schmeckt ein Brot, wie schuldlos ist eine Liebesnacht und wie trinkt man Messwein in einem weltlichen Zimmer wo vom Dach Regentropfen fallen und man die Dachrinne draußen klappern hört.

[Omid Milanifard · Rating 3 out of 5]

کتابی چگال از رنج و غم و سختی در روزگار پسا جنگ جهانی در آلمان ویران شده. خوشیهای این زمانه اینقدر در مقابل ناملایمات کمرنگ شدا اند که گاهی از یاد می بریم جویدن تکه ای نان میتواند آرزوی بزرگ یک انسان باشد..

[Lysergius · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is strange how few German writers wrote about the condition of the German cities at the end of WWII. There was a sense that this was too horrific to write about. This was the case with The Silent Angel which was published long after it was originally presented to publishers. It was considered "inappropriate" and too shocking...

On re-reading this I realised that it is incredibly dense and could form the basis for a much longer work.

[Jill Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's out of print I believe, but worth picking up a copy on eBay if you can find it. Sad & touching.

[Nat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Schöne, klare Sprache aber die Handlung schien mir recht zusammenhanglos.

[Ieva Strazdiņa [mrs.lasitaja] · Rating 2 out of 5]

Grāmata,kas manā plauktā nostāvēja vairāk kā piecus gadus un beidzot to izlasīju vai drīzāk - izmocīju. Iespējams, pie vainas tas, ka pirms tam lasītas krietni spēcīgākas grāmatas par II pasaules karu, taču “Eņģelis klusēja” šķita kā virspusējs stāsts bez sākuma un beigām. Kā izrautas lapas no kādas biezas grāmatas.

II pasaules kara beigas - pa vārdā nenosauktu pilsētu, tomēr pēcvārdā skaidrots, ka tā ir Ķelne - klīst dezertējis kareivis Hanss. Kareivis, kam uzdāvināta dzīvība, jo kāds feldfēbelis, apmaiņā pret vārdos neizteiktu lūgumu, ieņēma viņa vietu uz nošaušanu. Kareivis paveic uzdevumu, satiek nejaušus līdzcilvēkus, kā arī kara sagrautajā pilsētā neticami un negaidīti satiek savu mīlestību Regīnu.
Kopumā stāsts ir par negaidītu un necerētu mīlestību depresīvā laikā, taču viss stāsta fons šķiet virspusējs un haotisks un mīlestības stāsts - līdz galam neizstāstīts.

Vāks gan glīts - droši vien tādēļ arī savulaik iegādājos grāmatu.

[Tina Tamman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I pulled it from my shelf, hoping to abandon it after a cursory glance through. How mistaken I was! It is a very engrossing novel about post-war Germany, not at all sad and hopeless. The biggest surprise was the wealth of smells, textures and sights; this makes the post-war situation almost tangible, but there are other, subtler surprises. It should be more widely known, I would almost make it compulsory reading for all.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

W.G. Sebald once said that this is the only novel that somehow captures the horror of the rubble in Germany in the late 40s. Perhaps it was too horrific for the German audience immediately after the war. Although written in 1949-50, the book was not published until 1992.
When it did finally find its ways into bookshops its reviews were mixed. This novel 'of the lost generation', as Böll said himself, is not, like other works by the same author, widely read in German lessons. Perhaps, teachers struggle to point out anything educational about it. It does not try to be anything more, or less, than an account of the horrors that befell Germany and its people after the war was officially over and the altruistic charity that was needed to help the protagonist, Hans Schnitzler, towards any sort of future. "Talking is silver, silence is gold", a widely used German proverb, describes well Böll's style of writing. The absence of language is often more striking than its presence.
German suffering was often not mentioned or seen as a just punishment. Böll's novel shows just what it means when the wounds of a people have to heal in silence.

[Fernando · Rating 4 out of 5]

Con la lectura de está novela de iniciación del premio Nobel Heinrich Boll, bastante breve, pero indispensable pero aquellos que quieran comprender la precariedad física , espiritual y mental en que cae el pueblo aleman después de inminente y contundente derrota del imperio Nazi, saldo una deuda de más de 20 años con uno de mis escritores favoritos y que más extraño y releo, W. G. Sebald.

[Tahani Shihab · Rating 2 out of 5]

“لم يعد الأكل يبعث على السرور، كان قانونًا أسود يجبرهم على البلع بأية وسيلة وبأي ثمن لسد جوع لا يشبع، بل يتزايد”.

هاينرش بول.

[Ali Hajihossini · Rating 4 out of 5]

هاینریش بول
به زیبایی مصیبت‌های بعد از جنگ را به تصویر کشیده فقر، بیکاری ،مریضی،دزدی و روابط نادرست و رشوه در جامعه ویران بعد از جنگ و در عین حال عشق و امید به آینده پیش رو

[Arezoo · Rating 4 out of 5]

این رمان در واقع اولین رمان بلند بل محسوب می‌شود که بین سال‌های ۱۹۴۹ تا ۱۹۵۰ نوشته شد، اما به دلیل فضای تلخ و ناامیدکننده‌اش که با روحیه‌ی بازسازی و خوش‌بینی آن دوران آلمان همخوانی نداشت، توسط ناشران رد شد و سرانجام در سال ۱۹۹۲، پس از مرگ نویسنده، به چاپ رسید. همین تاریخچه‌ی انتشار، خود گواهی بر اهمیت و شاید صراحت بی‌موقع آن در زمان نگارشش است.

نقد و بررسی «فرشته سکوت کرد»
۱. ژانر و فضا: ادبیات ویرانه‌ها (Trümmerliteratur) این رمان نمونه‌ای کلاسیک از «ادبیات ویرانه‌ها» است. بل با رئالیسمی بی‌رحمانه و زبانی ساده اما قدرتمند، خواننده را به قلب یک شهر بمباران‌شده‌ی آلمانی (احتمالاً کلن) در سال ۱۹۴۵ می‌برد. فضای داستان آکنده از حس ویرانی، فقر، گرسنگی (هم جسمی و هم روحی)، سرما و ناامیدی است. بل بدون هیچ‌گونه رمانتیسمی، واقعیت تلخ زندگی روزمره‌ی مردمی را به تصویر می‌کشد که در میان آوارهای شهر و آوارهای روحی خودشان به دنبال بقا هستند.

۲. خلاصه داستان و شخصیت‌ها: داستان حول محور سربازی به نام «هانس شنیتسلر» می‌چرخد که پس از پایان جنگ، به شهر ویران‌شده‌اش بازمی‌گردد. او که نمی‌تواند به خانه‌ی خود برود، هویت سربازی مرده به نام ویلی گومپرتس را به خود می‌گیرد. در این میان با «رگینا اونگر»، زنی جوان که به تازگی فرزندش را از دست داده، آشنا می‌شود. رابطه‌ی میان هانس و رگینا، که هر دو بار سنگین گذشته و فقدان را بر دوش می‌کشند، به نقطه‌ی کانونی داستان تبدیل می‌شود؛ پیوندی که در دل ویرانی‌ها شکل می‌گیرد و شاید تنها کورسوی امید باشد.

۳. درون‌مایه‌های اصلی:

پیامدهای جنگ: رمان به شکلی عمیق به تأثیرات ویرانگر جنگ بر جسم و روح انسان‌ها می‌پردازد؛ از گرسنگی و بی‌خانمانی گرفته تا فروپاشی اخلاقی و حس بیگانگی.
جستجوی معنا و انسانیت: شخصیت‌های بل در جهانی که ارزش‌هایش فرو ریخته، به دنبال یافتن معنا، ارتباط انسانی و حفظ کرامت خود هستند. عشق میان هانس و رگینا نمادی از همین جستجوی انسانیت در شرایط غیرانسانی است.
گناه و مسئولیت: بل، هرچند با نگاهی همدلانه، از پرداختن به مسئله‌ی گناه و مسئولیت آلمانی‌ها در جنگ شانه خالی نمی‌کند.
نقد نهادها (به‌ویژه کلیسا): بل در این رمان، نگاهی انتقادی به نهادهایی مانند کلیسا دارد که به نظر او در برابر رنج مردم سکوت کرده‌اند یا با ریاکاری عمل می‌کنند. عنوان کتاب نیز به مجسمه‌ی فرشته‌ای در کلیسا اشاره دارد که در برابر نیاز مردم سکوت کرده و بی‌تفاوت است.
۴. سبک و اهمیت: سبک بل در این رمان، ساده، مستقیم و به دور از پیچیدگی‌های زبانی است، اما قدرت تأثیرگذاری بالایی دارد. او با نگاهی سرشار از انسان‌دوستی و شفقت، به رنج‌های شخصیت‌هایش می‌پردازد و همزمان ریاکاری‌ها و بی‌عدالتی‌های اجتماعی را نقد می‌کند. «فرشته سکوت کرد»، با وجود انتشار دیرهنگام، به عنوان یک سند تاریخی-ادبی مهم از دوران پس از جنگ و نقطه‌ی شروعی برای بسیاری از مضامینی که بل در طول دوران حرفه‌ای خود به آن‌ها پرداخت، شناخته می‌شود.

این رمان، با توجه به پرداختن به مسائلی چون جستجوی معنا در رنج، تاب‌آوری انسان در شرایط دشوار و نقد پوچی‌ها، می‌تواند با علاقه‌مندی‌های شما به ادبیات اگزیستانسیالیستی و روانشناسی معناگرا پیوند برقرار کند، هرچند نگاه بل بیشتر اجتماعی و تاریخی است.

[Karla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rede Heinrich rede

[Ziv · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was Heinrich Boll's first novel - and was supressed in Germany for 41 years after WWII due to Boll's harsh critique of the war and its aftermath. My personal favorite of Boll's is "The Clown" - which actually includes passages from The Silent Angel in a similar but more finely tuned context. Slow in the first few chapters, it picks up steam and finishes strong. Interesting from a historic perspective, especially as a study in a nobel laureate's development. I suspect readers who select this as their introduction to Boll will rate it much higher than I have in view of the other titles I've enjoyed from this influencial and deep thinking author.
ZK

[Haniyekheirandish · Rating 3 out of 5]

گفتن از زندگی .به همون اندازه تلخ و به همون اندازه سیال .سیال از اینکه تلخی می گذره و آدم یاد میگیره که ادامه بده .توصیفاتِ نسبتا دقیق.شخصیت هایی که زیاد بهشون نپرداخته به غیر دو تا سه نفرشون ،ولی هر کدومشون نماینده ی گروهی از جامعه اند که به صورتِ پی در پی به هم متصل اند ....شاید قشنگ ترین قسمتش برام همین پیوستگی و تو در تو بودن رابطه های بین شخصیت هاش بود و البته توصیفات مرگ .توصیفات فرشته و خنده اش.


مرگ و درد همون قدر که میتونه زندگی رو از کنترل خارج کنه ،اونو به طور معجزه آسایی تبدیل میکنه به زندگی همونجور که باید باشه گانگار فراموش کردن درد و رنج ،زندگی رو ازمون میگیره .

[Fiona · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent piece of literature

[Abolfazl Abedi · Rating 4 out of 5]

با وجود اینکه اولین رمان بل بوده و ناشر در اون زمان قبول نکرده بود که اون رو منتشر کنه و من خیلی اتفاقی شروع به خوندنش کردم تونست بسیار جذبم کنه و از همه زیباتر داستان پشت این رمان بود که آقای فرهودی در انتهای ترجمه به اون پرداخته بود

[Lora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful writing.