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edgar_allans_hoe's review against another edition
mysterious
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
monamelona's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
I would love to love it because the writing (in German original) is outstanding and the story is mesmerizing but female representation is horrific and the author doesn‘t seem to be very racially sensitive; uses inappropriate terms (doesn‘t occur often but it does).
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
Minor: Sexual content, Racial slurs, Racism, and Sexism
lulu_readsalot's review against another edition
2.0
Beautifully written in a place and time of darkness and desperation. Yet it rambles on and on. It was very difficult to push through and finish it
annabarbarabittner's review
2.0
Wrzesień miesiącem nudnej książki - bo i laureatka Deutscher Buchpreis z 2014 roku i nominowana do Nagrody Angelusa powieść Kruso zupełnie mnie nie zachwyciła.
Edgar Bendler - student literatury z Halle porzuca swoje dotychczasowe życie i wyjeżdża. Udaje się na malutką wyspę Hiddensee - miejsce, które w NRD miało kultowy status. Było azylem dla myślących inaczej, krytykujących system, wyrzutków społecznych i tych, którzy przed kimś lub czymś uciekali. Edgar dociera na wyspę latem 1989 roku i znajduje zatrudnienie w jednej z restauracji jako pomywacz. Stopniowo poznaje panującą na wyspie hierarchię, zwyczaje, społeczność uciekinierów, a także tereny wojskowe. Ludzie, żyjący na Hiddensee tworzą swoistą komunę, której niepisanym przywódcą jest Kruso. Alexander Krusowitsch. Zbieżność przezwiska z Robinsonem Cruzoe nie jest przypadkowa.
Edgar stopniowo pracuje na swoją pozycję na wyspie, a gdy zostaje przyjacielem Kruso od razu podskakuje w hierarchii. Obu mężczyzn połączą wiersze Georga Trakla i pewien detal z przeszłości. Oboje przeżyli stratę, z którą nigdy się nie pogodzili. Odosobnienie na wyspie ma swoje zalety i wady - okazuje się, że wielu z uciekinierów traktuje Hiddensse jako możliwość ucieczki do Danii. Wpław. Ucieczki, która nie zawsze się udaje.
Ciąg dalszy: https://przeczytalamksiazke.blogspot.com/2018/10/kruso-lutz-seiler.html
Edgar Bendler - student literatury z Halle porzuca swoje dotychczasowe życie i wyjeżdża. Udaje się na malutką wyspę Hiddensee - miejsce, które w NRD miało kultowy status. Było azylem dla myślących inaczej, krytykujących system, wyrzutków społecznych i tych, którzy przed kimś lub czymś uciekali. Edgar dociera na wyspę latem 1989 roku i znajduje zatrudnienie w jednej z restauracji jako pomywacz. Stopniowo poznaje panującą na wyspie hierarchię, zwyczaje, społeczność uciekinierów, a także tereny wojskowe. Ludzie, żyjący na Hiddensee tworzą swoistą komunę, której niepisanym przywódcą jest Kruso. Alexander Krusowitsch. Zbieżność przezwiska z Robinsonem Cruzoe nie jest przypadkowa.
Edgar stopniowo pracuje na swoją pozycję na wyspie, a gdy zostaje przyjacielem Kruso od razu podskakuje w hierarchii. Obu mężczyzn połączą wiersze Georga Trakla i pewien detal z przeszłości. Oboje przeżyli stratę, z którą nigdy się nie pogodzili. Odosobnienie na wyspie ma swoje zalety i wady - okazuje się, że wielu z uciekinierów traktuje Hiddensse jako możliwość ucieczki do Danii. Wpław. Ucieczki, która nie zawsze się udaje.
Ciąg dalszy: https://przeczytalamksiazke.blogspot.com/2018/10/kruso-lutz-seiler.html
scribepub's review against another edition
If communism’s final moments are an island of time, Kruso is a bottled message washed up from those distant shores. A strange journey, Seiler’s novel subscribes to island rules, with historicity suspended above and between fevered dreams of perfect community and beguiling freedom.
Letitia Montgomery-Rodgers, Forword Reviews
An outstanding debut novel … Beautifully phrased and paced, Tess Lewis’s translation delights on every page as she conveys “the contagious sense of liberation” that blows through Mr Seiler’s mesmeric novel.
The Economist
[A}n exciting, expansive work of German literature; it may well prove one of the major novels of the 21st century.
Eileen Battersby, The Irish Times
A seamless English translation by Tess Lewis … Readers might doubt whether Robinson Crusoe can work in a German setting — they might even feel affronted that it’s been attempted — but Seiler’s novel springs from his own experience in a way that underlines the universality of the tale.
Newsweek
An enigmatic Bildungsroman, adapting the literary trope of the island refuge to the dying days of East German socialism … English readers can delight in this prizewinning translation from Tess Lewis, which renders Seiler’s vision in prose of startling clarity.
The Saturday Age
Kruso [is] the first worthy successor to Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain to appear in contemporary German literature.
Der Spiegel
This novel set in the historic summer of 1989 is a lighthouse, not an ivory tower.
Süddeutsche Zeitung
Seiler’s novel Kruso shows what German literature can accomplish when it’s fully worked.
Welt Am Sonntag
That rare treasure — a great novel.
Postdamer Neueste Nachrichten
A multi-layered philosophical novel that poses a major question to us and to our time: How is freedom possible?
Die Zeit
Lutz Seiler’s writings trace their roots to Uwe Johnson’s poetry and reflect the German past, present and future beyond the surface of “simple truths” … In Kruso, Lutz Seiler visualises the hopes and constraints of a whole country by means of one singular place, Hiddensee, during one short period of time, June to November 1989.
From the statement of the UWE-Johnson-Prize 2014 Jury
Seiler delivers a debut novel with which he manages to catapult himself into the front rank of this country’s authors.
Die Zeit
A special book that will endure.
Frankfurter Rundschau
A sublime book that is far more than just the novel of the year.
Deutschlandradio Kultur
This novel has historical-philosophical dimensions: it is a significant contemplation on different forms of freedom as well as a wonderfully poetic exaltation of a concrete historical event — a truly great book.
3SAT Kulturzeit
Seiler’s novel is lyrical and powerful in its eloquence. Already he is to be counted among the great contemporary German literary figures.
WDR 5
The poetic language and careful expression to the prose in Kruso make for an arresting read too, slightly odd and off-beat, but quite compelling. It's also a novel of big themes — freedom (personal and political), longing (in all its gradations), and mourning, in particular — and the narrative's general sense of drift, with these bobbling up constantly but never overwhelming the story, is particularly well done. A fine, big novel.
M.A. Orthofer, The Complete Review
Lutz Seiler, winner of the English PEN Award and German Book Prize, brings a tumultuous debut novel to an English-speaking audience. Set on a bohemian Baltic coastal island, this novel of a cult of personality during the last days of the Soviet occupation of the GDR grips readers just as Kruso’s charisma grips our protagonist.
World Literature Today
Letitia Montgomery-Rodgers, Forword Reviews
An outstanding debut novel … Beautifully phrased and paced, Tess Lewis’s translation delights on every page as she conveys “the contagious sense of liberation” that blows through Mr Seiler’s mesmeric novel.
The Economist
[A}n exciting, expansive work of German literature; it may well prove one of the major novels of the 21st century.
Eileen Battersby, The Irish Times
A seamless English translation by Tess Lewis … Readers might doubt whether Robinson Crusoe can work in a German setting — they might even feel affronted that it’s been attempted — but Seiler’s novel springs from his own experience in a way that underlines the universality of the tale.
Newsweek
An enigmatic Bildungsroman, adapting the literary trope of the island refuge to the dying days of East German socialism … English readers can delight in this prizewinning translation from Tess Lewis, which renders Seiler’s vision in prose of startling clarity.
The Saturday Age
Kruso [is] the first worthy successor to Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain to appear in contemporary German literature.
Der Spiegel
This novel set in the historic summer of 1989 is a lighthouse, not an ivory tower.
Süddeutsche Zeitung
Seiler’s novel Kruso shows what German literature can accomplish when it’s fully worked.
Welt Am Sonntag
That rare treasure — a great novel.
Postdamer Neueste Nachrichten
A multi-layered philosophical novel that poses a major question to us and to our time: How is freedom possible?
Die Zeit
Lutz Seiler’s writings trace their roots to Uwe Johnson’s poetry and reflect the German past, present and future beyond the surface of “simple truths” … In Kruso, Lutz Seiler visualises the hopes and constraints of a whole country by means of one singular place, Hiddensee, during one short period of time, June to November 1989.
From the statement of the UWE-Johnson-Prize 2014 Jury
Seiler delivers a debut novel with which he manages to catapult himself into the front rank of this country’s authors.
Die Zeit
A special book that will endure.
Frankfurter Rundschau
A sublime book that is far more than just the novel of the year.
Deutschlandradio Kultur
This novel has historical-philosophical dimensions: it is a significant contemplation on different forms of freedom as well as a wonderfully poetic exaltation of a concrete historical event — a truly great book.
3SAT Kulturzeit
Seiler’s novel is lyrical and powerful in its eloquence. Already he is to be counted among the great contemporary German literary figures.
WDR 5
The poetic language and careful expression to the prose in Kruso make for an arresting read too, slightly odd and off-beat, but quite compelling. It's also a novel of big themes — freedom (personal and political), longing (in all its gradations), and mourning, in particular — and the narrative's general sense of drift, with these bobbling up constantly but never overwhelming the story, is particularly well done. A fine, big novel.
M.A. Orthofer, The Complete Review
Lutz Seiler, winner of the English PEN Award and German Book Prize, brings a tumultuous debut novel to an English-speaking audience. Set on a bohemian Baltic coastal island, this novel of a cult of personality during the last days of the Soviet occupation of the GDR grips readers just as Kruso’s charisma grips our protagonist.
World Literature Today
scribepub's review
Serene, mysterious and quietly profound … a reflection on the recent past that somehow feels like the most urgent kind of prophecy.
Weekend Australian
An enigmatic Bildungsroman, adapting the literary trope of the island refuge to the dying days of East German socialism … English readers can delight in this prizewinning translation from Tess Lewis, which renders Seiler’s vision in prose of startling clarity.
The Saturday Age
The German poet Lutz Seiler has brought all his art, linguistic ease, flair for dazzling images and master of what he describes as ‘the nervous systems of memory’ to this extraordinary debut novel … Kruso is an exciting, expansive work of German literature; it may well prove one of the major novels of the 21st century.
Eileen Battersby, The Irish Times
An outstanding debut novel … Beautifully phrased and paced, Tess Lewis’s translation delights on every page as she conveys “the contagious sense of liberation” that blows through Mr Seiler’s mesmeric novel.
The Economist
This novel set in the historic summer of 1989 is a lighthouse, not an ivory tower.
Süddeutsche Zeitung
Seiler’s novel Kruso shows what German literature can accomplish when it’s fully worked.
Welt Am Sonntag
That rare treasure — a great novel.
Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten
A multi-layered philosophical novel that poses a major question to us and to our time: How is freedom possible?
Die Zeit
Lutz Seiler’s writings trace their roots to Uwe Johnson’s poetry and reflect the German past, present and future beyond the surface of “simple truths” [...] In Kruso, Lutz Seiler visualises the hopes and constraints of a whole country by means of one singular place, Hiddensee, during one short period of time, June to November 1989.
From the statement of the UWE-Johnson-Prize 2014 Jury
Kruso [is] the first worthy successor to Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain to appear in contemporary German literature.
Der Spiegel
Seiler delivers a debut novel with which he manages to catapult himself into the front rank of this country’s authors.
Die Zeit
A special book that will endure.
Frankenfurter Rundschau
A sublime book that is far more than just the novel of the year.
Deutschlandradio Kultur
This novel has historical-philosophical dimensions: it is a significant contemplation on different forms of freedom as well as a wonderfully poetic exaltation of a concrete historical event — a truly great book.
3SAT Kulturzeit
Seiler’s novel is lyrical and powerful in its eloquence. Already he is to be counted among the great contemporary German literary figures.
WDR 5
A seamless English translation by Tess Lewis … Readers might doubt whether Robinson Crusoe can work in a German setting — they might even feel affronted that it’s been attempted — but Seiler’s novel springs from his own experience in a way that underlines the universality of the tale.
Maggie Ferguson, Newsweek
If communism’s final moments are an island of time, Kruso is a bottled message washed up from those distant shores. A strange journey, Seiler’s novel subscribes to island rules, with historicity suspended above and between fevered dreams of perfect community and beguiling freedom.
Letitia Montgomery-Rogers, Foreword Reviews
The poetic language and careful expression to the prose in Kruso make for an arresting read too, slightly odd and off-beat, but quite compelling. It's also a novel of big themes — freedom (personal and political), longing (in all its gradations), and mourning, in particular — and the narrative's general sense of drift, with these bobbling up constantly but never overwhelming the story, is particularly well done. A fine, big novel.
M.A. Orthofer, The Complete Review
Lutz Seiler, winner of the English PEN Award and German Book Prize, brings a tumultuous debut novel to an English-speaking audience. Set on a bohemian Baltic coastal island, this novel of a cult of personality during the last days of the Soviet occupation of the GDR grips readers just as Kruso’s charisma grips our protagonist.
World Literature Today
Weekend Australian
An enigmatic Bildungsroman, adapting the literary trope of the island refuge to the dying days of East German socialism … English readers can delight in this prizewinning translation from Tess Lewis, which renders Seiler’s vision in prose of startling clarity.
The Saturday Age
The German poet Lutz Seiler has brought all his art, linguistic ease, flair for dazzling images and master of what he describes as ‘the nervous systems of memory’ to this extraordinary debut novel … Kruso is an exciting, expansive work of German literature; it may well prove one of the major novels of the 21st century.
Eileen Battersby, The Irish Times
An outstanding debut novel … Beautifully phrased and paced, Tess Lewis’s translation delights on every page as she conveys “the contagious sense of liberation” that blows through Mr Seiler’s mesmeric novel.
The Economist
This novel set in the historic summer of 1989 is a lighthouse, not an ivory tower.
Süddeutsche Zeitung
Seiler’s novel Kruso shows what German literature can accomplish when it’s fully worked.
Welt Am Sonntag
That rare treasure — a great novel.
Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten
A multi-layered philosophical novel that poses a major question to us and to our time: How is freedom possible?
Die Zeit
Lutz Seiler’s writings trace their roots to Uwe Johnson’s poetry and reflect the German past, present and future beyond the surface of “simple truths” [...] In Kruso, Lutz Seiler visualises the hopes and constraints of a whole country by means of one singular place, Hiddensee, during one short period of time, June to November 1989.
From the statement of the UWE-Johnson-Prize 2014 Jury
Kruso [is] the first worthy successor to Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain to appear in contemporary German literature.
Der Spiegel
Seiler delivers a debut novel with which he manages to catapult himself into the front rank of this country’s authors.
Die Zeit
A special book that will endure.
Frankenfurter Rundschau
A sublime book that is far more than just the novel of the year.
Deutschlandradio Kultur
This novel has historical-philosophical dimensions: it is a significant contemplation on different forms of freedom as well as a wonderfully poetic exaltation of a concrete historical event — a truly great book.
3SAT Kulturzeit
Seiler’s novel is lyrical and powerful in its eloquence. Already he is to be counted among the great contemporary German literary figures.
WDR 5
A seamless English translation by Tess Lewis … Readers might doubt whether Robinson Crusoe can work in a German setting — they might even feel affronted that it’s been attempted — but Seiler’s novel springs from his own experience in a way that underlines the universality of the tale.
Maggie Ferguson, Newsweek
If communism’s final moments are an island of time, Kruso is a bottled message washed up from those distant shores. A strange journey, Seiler’s novel subscribes to island rules, with historicity suspended above and between fevered dreams of perfect community and beguiling freedom.
Letitia Montgomery-Rogers, Foreword Reviews
The poetic language and careful expression to the prose in Kruso make for an arresting read too, slightly odd and off-beat, but quite compelling. It's also a novel of big themes — freedom (personal and political), longing (in all its gradations), and mourning, in particular — and the narrative's general sense of drift, with these bobbling up constantly but never overwhelming the story, is particularly well done. A fine, big novel.
M.A. Orthofer, The Complete Review
Lutz Seiler, winner of the English PEN Award and German Book Prize, brings a tumultuous debut novel to an English-speaking audience. Set on a bohemian Baltic coastal island, this novel of a cult of personality during the last days of the Soviet occupation of the GDR grips readers just as Kruso’s charisma grips our protagonist.
World Literature Today
reannexy's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
robin_go's review against another edition
3.0
There’s a hint of Alex Garland's 'The Beach' in the community revelry and suspicious atmosphere, but this an altogether more enigmatic, literary work. A game of cache-cache that some protagonists, on the face of it, don't want to end.
What it’s devastatingly good at is describing the mental aftermath of loss. And specifically way that loss can readily lead to hero-worship. Such a 'head-over-heels' rush is very believably and acutely described here. Indeed it's the last word in bromance-lit.
I visited Hiddensee, the extended grounds of the ‘Klausner’ and down the steps to the beach, while on holiday, in the year before I read this book. But this isn't so much about physical context - there's philosophical notions of freedom here that maybe a reader brighter than myself succeeded in getting a handle on?
The female characters in the book I found extremely problematic – silent, sexy, strangers, seemingly absent of personality with thoughts left worryingly undescribed. Who throw themselves silently and instantly into no-strings-attached, free-love with the first odd-job dishwasher to put them up. Although, outside of these fuzzy scenes, masculine desire following tragedy is described rather more tellingly.
It’s regularly left unclear what’s reality and what’s real life, what’s a dream, a hallucination or an imagining. This distinction is sometimes more important to the reader than the author thinks it needs to be.
Like the women, the personage of Rommstedt is also rather lazily drawn. He says things like “And how are we today Mr Bendler?” like a smug fugitive from an Ian Fleming adaptation.
If most movies are a good 15 minutes too long, then this suffers from the same plight – it strongly feels like a debut novel that had the loosest of editing. And I never got over the fact it's so diary-like yet is written in the third person.
I am maybe making out I didn’t like it, when I actually did - indeed it’s dominated my thoughts a lot. Although I would doubt it was the best German novel of it's year and even more unlikely, the decade. I do recommend it as a good atmospheric book to dip into over a long period and let seep into you – I started it in one ‘season’ and finished it in another, which felt strangely appropriate.
What it’s devastatingly good at is describing the mental aftermath of loss. And specifically way that loss can readily lead to hero-worship. Such a 'head-over-heels' rush is very believably and acutely described here. Indeed it's the last word in bromance-lit.
I visited Hiddensee, the extended grounds of the ‘Klausner’ and down the steps to the beach, while on holiday, in the year before I read this book. But this isn't so much about physical context - there's philosophical notions of freedom here that maybe a reader brighter than myself succeeded in getting a handle on?
The female characters in the book I found extremely problematic – silent, sexy, strangers, seemingly absent of personality with thoughts left worryingly undescribed. Who throw themselves silently and instantly into no-strings-attached, free-love with the first odd-job dishwasher to put them up. Although, outside of these fuzzy scenes, masculine desire following tragedy is described rather more tellingly.
It’s regularly left unclear what’s reality and what’s real life, what’s a dream, a hallucination or an imagining. This distinction is sometimes more important to the reader than the author thinks it needs to be.
Like the women, the personage of Rommstedt is also rather lazily drawn. He says things like “And how are we today Mr Bendler?” like a smug fugitive from an Ian Fleming adaptation.
If most movies are a good 15 minutes too long, then this suffers from the same plight – it strongly feels like a debut novel that had the loosest of editing. And I never got over the fact it's so diary-like yet is written in the third person.
I am maybe making out I didn’t like it, when I actually did - indeed it’s dominated my thoughts a lot. Although I would doubt it was the best German novel of it's year and even more unlikely, the decade. I do recommend it as a good atmospheric book to dip into over a long period and let seep into you – I started it in one ‘season’ and finished it in another, which felt strangely appropriate.
sturmvoqel's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0