Tuesday, 19 January 2021

In Love and War: "Stella" by Takis Würger


Stella

by Takis Würger

(translated from the German 

by Liesl Schillinger)

In 1942, despite the raging war, would-be artist Friedrich leaves the relative safety of his native Switzerland for Berlin, a city which haunts his imagination.  Friedrich has barely started his art classes when he falls for the model, Kristin.  Kristin appears to Friedrich to be whatever he is not – confident, worldly, enigmatic, glamorous.  Despite Friedrich being something of an introvert, the two soon become lovers, sharing his rooms at the Grand Hotel and seemingly oblivious to the cataclysmic world events going on around them.  Kristin, however, has her secrets.  When, one day, she comes back battered, bruised and abused, Friedrich starts to realise that there is more to his lover than he realised at first – for a start, the fact that her real name is Stella and that she is a Jew, notwithstanding her surprising friendship with members of the Gestapo.

Stella is hardly the first novel inspired by the tragic situation of the Jews under the Nazi regime.  Certainly, it will not be the last.  Würger’s approach, however, is both original and sensitive.  In choosing as his subject a real historical figure who chose to hide her Jewish identity, he confronts the reader with a moral dilemma which ultimately lies at the heart of the book – is all fair in love and war?

What also struck me about this novel is the narrative voice. This is a book full of extremes of passion – love, hate, lust, tears and laughter, life, death.  Yet Friedrich, who acts as the narrator, is often detached and matter of fact.  The chapters of the novel are set in consecutive months in 1942 – each starts with historical snippets, as if we’re reading a history book.   This deliberate attempt to eschew melodrama makes the salient scenes of the novel more effective, shocking and moving.   The final paragraphs, in which an older Friedrich abandons himself to nostalgia, are nothing short of heart-breaking.    

Stella is a quick read but one which, I suspect, will not be easily forgotten.

ebook
Published January 12th 2021 by Grove Press (first published January 1st 2019)

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