Eva's Cousin
Page 34
Did you do much research to write this novel, in addition to listening to and recording Ms. Weisker’s stories? If so, what sort of research? And if not, why not?
SK: Of course I did much research for the book. Especially on bomb attacks on German cities. I had no experience of my own to help me come to terms with it (I was born in 1944). And there must be something of your own experience in everything you write. So I got to read diaries of those years and tried to talk to people who are older than I am. Sometimes doing research is like opening a window to the past. I did not always like what I saw. Of course I have read the great Hitler biographers ( Joachim Fest, Ian Kershaw). I have had enough of it for the rest of my life.
How might a German audience’s reaction to your book be different from an American audience’s reaction, and how might it be similar? When you were writing, did you have a particular audience in mind? This is your first book translated into English—did this come as a surprise to you? Why or why not?
SK: I always have a special audience in mind: people who are like me, people who love a good story and like to forget the rest of the world while reading it, keen to extend their scopes of human understanding. No matter if they are German or American or whatever. Having my book translated into English (as well as many other languages) was such a wonderful experience for me. It does not happen to many German writers. When I got the translation, which is a really good one by Anthea Bell, I was nearly moved to tears. Can you imagine that? It was like looking into a mirror for the first time and understanding: That is me. I deeply love and admire many works of English and American literature. But this was my own. And by reading it, I thought: This is exactly how I would write if I wrote in English. She even kept the rhythm of my prose.
In talking to Ms. Weisker and then in writing this book, did you learn anything new about the nature of memory, and how memory serves an individual in either assuaging fear and guilt or in haunting one with fear and guilt? How does memory create self-perceptions, and how does this process either get disrupted or reinforced by the pressures of history itself?
SK: Is that not the reason why we need books, need to be told stories, in order to not be haunted with fear and guilt? You can’t stay alone with your memories. You must share them. You must learn what you have lived through, and you must tell others. We Germans lived with too many untold stories for too long. Our self-perception thus remained incomplete. Because the past is always part of the present. We must learn to say “we,” not “them.” It was “us” who did it. And writers are the ones to try to find a language for painful experiences of guilt and shame and complicity. It is high time. I tried. And let’s not forget Gertrude Weisker—she tried by telling me.
As a writer, do you believe that there are some histories that will always be written about? Will there ever come a day when we are done writing about World War II, for example, or are there some events from history whose trauma must always be reexplored, and if so, why?
SK: Who knows? You need a Shakespeare to come to terms with it. One thing you can take for certain: He would have loved the material. Hitler, Göring, Goebbels, and all the others . . . great villains in a Shakespeare scene. Yes, I think, in a certain uneasy way, they are immortal. They will always be material, not just for Germans, but for writers at any time. It is wise to be aware of the dark side of human potentiality.
Marlene’s story is an extreme example of how one person’s life can become intricately tied up with world-shaping events. How much responsibility do any of us as individuals have in the creation of history? Where does one’s own life bleed into the events of the day?
SK: Everywhere, every time. The problem is, we are not aware of it as it is happening but only when it is done. Then, sometimes, we wake up like from a dream. Sometimes nearly sixty years later (which is too late). And it is the duty and great profession of writers (filmmakers, artists . . .) to point it out. I promise I keep to it. What can a person perceive of what will later be called history? The question lies at the center of all my books. Maybe it is a typical German point of view? It should be.
READING GROUP QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION
Were you able to relate to Marlene, and if so, how?
Would you agree that Marlene, in many ways, seems like a normal girl caught in frighteningly abnormal circumstances? Why or why not?
Does reading about Marlene’s complicity make you uneasy at all, and if so, why?
Should literature please us or make us uncomfortable? How does Eva’s Cousin do either, neither, or both?
How do history and fiction collide in Eva’s Cousin? Do you find “truth” in stories, in facts, or in both? What does “historically accurate” even mean?
Hitler himself famously used the Armenian genocide and Europe’s apparent amnesia of it as an example of how the victors write history. How might Gertrude Weisker’s story have been different had Germany won World War II? What does this say about history’s relationship to fiction?
Why would an author choose to fictionalize a story like Weisker’s? How do your expectations change as a reader when you read a novel about a historical event versus a history book?
What constitutes a “historical event”?
The Nazis themselves knew that words are dangerous. Do you think Marlene knew this as well? If so, why?
How could Eva Braun love a man like Hitler? What might this suggest about the nature of love, if anything?
Would you recommend this book to anyone? Why or why not? Would you recommend it to a German friend? Why or why not?
What, if anything, does this book contribute to your understanding of Germany during World War II? Does it confirm or challenge any of your current knowledge about the war?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SIBYLLE KNAUSS, born in 1944, is the author of eight novels, and is professor of dramaturgy and scriptwriting at the Baden-Württemberg Academy of Film. This is her first book to be translated into English. She lives near Stuttgart in Germany.
A Ballantine Book Published by The Random House Publishing Group
English language translation copyright © 2002 by Anthea Bell
Reader’s Guide copyright © 2003 by Sibylle Knauss and The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.. Originally published in German as Evas Cousine by Claassen Verlag, a division of Econ Ullstein List Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Munich, in 2000. Copyright German text © 2000 Econ Ullstein List Verlag GmbH & Co., KG, Munich. This English translation is published by arrangement with Doubleday, an imprint of Transworld Publishers, a division of the Random House Group Ltd., which originally published it in Great Britain in 2000.
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2003097053
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eISBN: 978-0-307-41516-5
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