Description
As a young woman, Else made two promises to herself: to live life to the fullest and to have a child with every man she loves. You Are Not Like Other Mothers tells the stories of the men in her life-husbands, companions, lovers and emissaries of a world in which men repeatedly prove themselves inadequate. It also tells the stories of Peter, Bettina, and Angelika, Else's three children.
Set during World War I and then the roaring twenties and the advent of Nazism and, for Else, exile in Bulgaria. But these dark years are also a time of experimentation, during which Else and the people in her life explore alternative modes of interpersonal relationships. All these stories and their characters are held together by the forceful figure of a woman who is larger than life.
But the indomitable Else will make a most human mistake when she tries to hide the real extent of the Nazi tragedy from her children and, instead of protecting them, she brings disaster down upon her family.
About the Author
Angelika Schrobsdorff was born in 1927 in Freiburg. She immigrated to Sofia in 1939 with her mother and returned to Germany in 1947. She married Claude Lanzmann, director of the landmark 1985 documentary Shoah, in 1971, and, after more than a decade in Paris and Monaco, they moved to Israel in 1983. Today, Angelika Schrobsdorff lives in Berlin. She is the author of ten novels and two works of short stories. Steven Rendall has translated ninety-six books from French and German, four of which have won major translation prizes. His translations for Europa Editions include Disturbance by Philippe Lancon (2019) and The Tyranny of Algorithms by Miguel Benasayag (2021). He is professor emeritus of Romance Languages at the University of Oregon. He lives in France.
Reviews
"An extraordinary book."
"A hymn to the beguiling Berlin of the Weimar Republic."
"Fantastic."
Book Information
ISBN 9781787703056
Author Angelika Schrobsdorff
Format Paperback
Page Count 544
Imprint Europa Editions (UK) Ltd
Publisher Europa Editions (UK) Ltd