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Stones from the River
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Read Stones from the River
The Burgdorf Cycle: Book 1

Stones from the River (1994) (edit title/settings)

by Ursula Hegi (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

Stones from the River is a daring, dramatic and complex novel of life in Germany. It is set in Burgdorf, a small fictional German town, between 1915 and 1951. The protagonist is Trudi Montag, a Zwerg -- the German word for dwarf woman. As a dwarf she is set apart, the outsider whose physical... read more

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “Even when he stopped dancing with his wife and opened another bottle of cognac at the opposite side of the room from her, it felt as though the two of them were still touching.”
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • “Ah, but we can’t do that—compare our pain. It minimizes what happens to us, distorts it. We need to say, yes, this is what happened to me, and this is what I’ll do with it.”
    Highlighted by 10 Kindle customers
  • they lived in a country where believing had taken the place of knowing.
    Highlighted by 9 Kindle customers
  • What the river was showing her now was that she could flow beyond the brokenness, redeem herself, and fuse once more. If that rock was her love for Hanna, she could let it stop her, block her—or she could acknowledge the rock and have respect for it, alter her course to move around it.
    Highlighted by 7 Kindle customers
  • And throughout all, Trudi wove the assurance for Georg and herself that—once someone had been in your life—you could keep that person there despite the agony of loss, as long as you had faith that you could bring the sum of all your hours together in one shining moment.
    Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers
  • “Fear,” Leo said, “is a strange thing. It strips off masks.… In some people it brings out the lowest instincts, while others become more compassionate. Both have to do with survival. But the choice is ours.”
    Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers
  • Yet the long training in obedience to elders, government, and church made it difficult—even for those who considered the views of the Nazis dishonorable—to give voice to their misgivings. And so they kept hushed, yielding to each new indignity while they waited for the Nazis and their ideas to go away, but with every compliance they relinquished more of themselves, weakening the texture of the community while the power of the Nazis swelled.
    Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers
  • “We Germans have a history of sacrificing everything for one strong leader,” her father had said. “It’s our fear of chaos.”
    Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers
  • It was like that with stories: she could see beneath their surface, know the undercurrents, the whirlpools that could take you down, the hidden clusters of rocks. Stories could blind you, rise around you in a myriad of colors. Every time Trudi took a story and let it stream through her mind from beginning to end, it grew fuller, richer, feeding on her visions of those people the story belonged to until it left its bed like the river she loved. And it was then that she’d have to tell the story to someone.
    Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers
  • given a choice, she would rather be the one who was persecuted than the one who did the persecuting. Both had a terrible price to pay, but she would rather endure humiliation and fear than grow numb to what it was to be human.
    Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers
  • For Trudi, it was amazing to discover how many reasons other than size could turn you into an outsider—your religion, your race, your opinions. Enemies could endanger you with rumors; friends might involuntarily destroy you by repeating something they’d heard you say.
    Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers
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First Sentence edit see section history

AS A CHILD TRUDI MUNTAG THOUGHT EVERYONE KNEW WHAT WENT on inside others.

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 1 of 4 in The Burgdorf Cycle. (standard series)

Followed by Floating in My Mother's Palm.

This book is in Book Lover's Cook Book, The. (authoritative list)
This is book 5 of 70 in Oprah's Book Club. (authoritative list)

Preceded by She's Come Undone, and followed by The Rapture of Canaan.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Ursula Hegi (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Country: USA
Publication Date: 1994
ISBN: 0-671-78075-1
Page Count: 509

Awards edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PR911.9.H43S76 1994
  • Dewey: 823.20

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