{"product_id":"transit-paperback","title":"Transit - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eAnna Seghers\u003c\/b\u003e (Author), \u003cb\u003ePeter Conrad\u003c\/b\u003e (Introduction by), \u003cb\u003eMargot Bettauer Dembo\u003c\/b\u003e (Translator)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnna Seghers's \u003ci\u003eTransit\u003c\/i\u003e is an existential, political, literary thriller that explores the agonies of boredom, the vitality of storytelling, and the plight of the exile with extraordinary compassion and insight. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHaving escaped from a Nazi concentration camp in Germany in 1937, and later a camp in Rouen, the nameless twenty-seven-year-old German narrator of Seghers's multilayered masterpiece ends up in the dusty seaport of Marseille. Along the way he is asked to deliver a letter to a man named Weidel in Paris and discovers Weidel has committed suicide, leaving behind a suitcase containing letters and the manuscript of a novel. As he makes his way to Marseille to find Weidel's widow, the narrator assumes the identity of a refugee named Seidler, though the authorities think he is really Weidel. There in the giant waiting room of Marseille, the narrator converses with the refugees, listening to their stories over pizza and wine, while also gradually piecing together the story of Weidel, whose manuscript has shattered the narrator's \"deathly boredom,\" bringing him to a deeper awareness of the transitory world the refugees inhabit as they wait and wait for that most precious of possessions: transit papers.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAnna Seghers\u003c\/b\u003e (née Netty Reiling; 1900-1983) was born in Mainz, Germany, into an upper-middle-class Jewish family. She was a sickly and introverted child by her own account, but became an intellectually curious student, eventually earning a doctorate in art history at the University of Heidelberg in 1924; her first story, written under the name Antje Seghers, was published in the same year. In 1925 she married a Hungarian immigrant economist and began her writing career in earnest. By 1929 Seghers had joined the Communist Party, given birth to her first child, and received the Kleist Prize for her first novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Revolt of the Fisherman\u003c\/i\u003e. Having settled in France in 1933, Seghers was forced to flee again after the 1940 Nazi invasion. With the aid of Varian Fry, Seghers, her husband, and two children sailed from Marseille to Mexico on a ship that included among its passengers Victor Serge, André Breton, and Claude Lévi-Strauss. After the war she moved to East Berlin, where she became an emblematic figure of East German letters, actively championing the work of younger writers from her position as president of the Writers Union and publishing at a steady pace. Among Seghers's internationally regarded works are \u003ci\u003eThe Seventh Cross\u003c\/i\u003e (1939; adapted for film in 1944 by MGM), one of the only World War II-era depictions of Nazi concentration camps; the novella \u003ci\u003eExcursion of the Dead Girls\u003c\/i\u003e (1945); \u003ci\u003eThe Dead Stay Young\u003c\/i\u003e (1949); and the story collection \u003ci\u003eBenito's Blue\u003c\/i\u003e (1973). \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eMargot Bettauer Dembo\u003c\/b\u003e (1928-2019) was the translator of works by Judith Hermann, Robert Gernhardt, Joachim Fest, Ödön von Horváth, and Feridun Zaimoglu, among others. She was awarded the Goethe-Institut\/Berlin Translator's Prize in 1994 and the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize in 2003. Dembo also worked as a translator for two feature documentary films: \u003ci\u003eThe Restless Conscience\u003c\/i\u003e, which was nominated for an Academy Award, and \u003ci\u003eThe Burning Wall\u003c\/i\u003e. For NYRB Classics she translated \u003ci\u003eTransit\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Seventh Cross\u003c\/i\u003e by Anna Seghers and \u003ci\u003eGrand Hotel \u003c\/i\u003eby Vicki Baum. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003ePeter Conrad\u003c\/b\u003e was born in Australia, and since 1973 has taught English literature at Christ Church, Oxford. He has published nineteen books on a variety of subjects; among the best known are \u003ci\u003eModern Times, Modern Places; A Song of Love and Death; The Everyman History of English Literature\u003c\/i\u003e; and studies of Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles. His most recent book is \u003ci\u003eCreation: Artists, Gods and Origins\u003c\/i\u003e. He has contributed features and reviews to many magazines and newspapers, including \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times, The New Yorker, The Observer\u003c\/i\u003e, the \u003ci\u003eNew Statesman, The Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Monthly\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eHeinrich Böll\u003c\/b\u003e (1917-1985) was one of Germany's foremost post-World War II writers. He wrote short stories, essays, plays, and novels, the most famous of which are \u003ci\u003eBilliards at Half-Past Nine\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Clown, Group Portrait with Lady\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Lost Honor of Katharina Blum\u003c\/i\u003e. Böll was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize in 1967 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1972.\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 280\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.5 x 8.4 x 5.3 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e May 07, 2013\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42701195771967,"sku":"9781590176252","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0105\/8226\/1823\/files\/da0aa47e0b5625e8aca53785728c3828.webp?v=1765019708","url":"https:\/\/dhl-adrianne.myshopify.com\/products\/transit-paperback","provider":"BBB","version":"1.0","type":"link"}