sign in| help
Search advanced search
 
Books
Search:
x dismiss this message

Did you know you can edit this page?

The Land of Green Plums
  • Rated 0 stars
Read The Land of Green Plums

The Land of Green Plums (1996) (edit title/settings)

by Herta Müller (Author) (edit contributors)

Share this book on:
see page history

Description edit see section history

The Land of Green Plums is the story of a group of young people in Nicolae Ceausescu's Romania. Having left their impoverished villages for University in search of education and camaraderie, yet largely unprepared for urban life by their provincial childhoods, the youths quickly find their... read more

Summary edit see section history

Five Romanian youths under the Ceausescu regime are the focus of this moving depiction of the struggle to become adults who keep "eyes wide open and tightly shut at the same time." Through the suicide of a mutual friend, the unnamed narrator a young woman studying to become a translator meets... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

Five Romanian youths under the Ceausescu regime are the focus of this moving depiction of the struggle to become adults who keep "eyes wide open and tightly shut at the same time." Through the suicide of a mutual friend, the unnamed narrator a young woman studying to become a translator meets a trio of young men with whom she shares a subjugated political and philosophic rebelliousness. The jobs the state assigns them after graduation pull each to a different quadrant of the country, and this, as well as the narrator's new friendship with the daughter of a prominent Party member, strains their relations. The group manages to maintain its closeness anyway, through coded letters bearing strands of the sender's hair as a tamper-warning. As the friends begin to lose their jobs and grow weary of being followed, threatened and pulled in for semi-regular interrogations, each one thinks increasingly about escape. Terrifyingly, the narrator finds herself changing into a stranger: "someone who keeps company with misery, to make sure it stays put." Making her American debut, Muller is well-served by the workmanlike translation; though her lyrical writing falters badly at times (such as the baffling, repeated metaphor that gives the book its title), it also soars to rarefied heights. Most importantly, few books have conveyed with such clarity the convergence of terror and boredom under totalitarianism.

Source: Publishers Weekly

Characters edit see section history

Popular Covers

Loading covers…

Choose your book’s cover

Quotes edit see section history

  • “You think you're innocent, but no one gets beaten up without cause.”
  • “And then I have the feeling that whenever someone dies he leaves behind a sack of words.”
  • “"Kurt a spus odata: Acesti copii sunt deja complici. Ei isi miros tatii, seara, cand sunt sarutati, pentru ca acestia beau sange de la abator si vor sa ajunga si ei acolo."”

First Sentence edit see section history

When we don't speak, said Edgar, we become unbearable, and when we do, we make fools of ourselves.

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 1998 of 15 in International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award winners. (community list)

Preceded by A Heart So White, and followed by Ingenious Pain.

This book is in Outstanding books by Nobel Prizes in Literature. (community list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Herta Müller (Author)

Other Contributors:

  1. Michael Hofman (Translator)
  2. GholamHossin Mirzasaleh (Translator)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: NY: Henry Holt & Co
Country: USA
Publication Date: 1996
ISBN: 0805042954
Page Count: 256

Classification edit see section history

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • The Appointment: A Novel
  • The Passport (Masks)
  • Traveling on One Leg
  • Nadirs (European Women Writers)

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history

   
  • Body and Narrative in Contemporary Literatures in German: Herta Muller, Libuse Monikova, and Kerstin Hensel (Oxford Modern Languages and Literature Monographs)

We’re hiding the errata, movie connections, books that influenced this book, books influenced by this book, books that cite this book and books cited by this book sections. If you would like to add content to them, you must first make them visible.

© 2006-2012 Shelfari | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Copyright Policy

Close