Hester Among the Ruins by Binnie Kirshenbaum

Hester Among the Ruins by Binnie Kirshenbaum

Born in New York in 1963, historian Hester Rosenfeld—very American and marginally Jewish—goes to Munich to research the life of Heinrich Falk and becomes his mistress. Born in Berlin in 1943, raised in the ruins of defeat by a generation of "murderers and cowards," Professor Falk is neither infamous nor famous—he is simply the German Everyman. Hester believes his life story could make for an important contemporary historical document—kitchen table history. Heinrich is married (four times, twice to his current wife) and has four daughters. But madly in love with Hester, adultery is nothing new to him. As he assists her in her note-taking—about him and his family, about German history—she often suspects Heinrich is covering up something. Was his brother really a Werewolf, a Nazi militiaman who vowed to continue fighting after the war's end? What kind of gas company did his mother work for? And what exactly did his father do during those years? Yet Hester has her secrets, too, and the longer she remains in Germany the harder it is to keep them concealed. As she uncovers more of the Falk family's possible connection to Nazism, she finds herself reexamining her feelings about her own parents and her complicated attraction to Heinrich. As the lovers' intimacy deepens beyond the erotic, each suspects the other of hiding something about the past. Called a "rare and remarkable writer" by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Cunningham, Kirshenbaum has written a searing novel about history's unforgettable legacy and its continuing impact.

"I mustn't oppress Kirshenbaum with too many great names (Wagner, Mailer, Shaw) because I fear that the neat candor and structural cunning of Pure Poetry may distract a reader who is being (supremely) entertained" -- Richard Howard - Los Angeles Times Book Review
"The younger sister of Philip Roth, the lost doppelganger of Erica Jong." -- Carlin Romano - Philadelphia Inquirer
"Not many female novelists can deal with sex, the appetite for it, and the loss of such appetite with as much candor, lack of self-protection, and humor as Binnie Kirshenbaum." -- Norman Mailer

Binnie Kirshenbaum is the author of three novels, On Mermaid Avenue, A Disturbance in One Place, and Pure Poetry, and a story collection, History on a Personal Note. She teaches at Columbia University's Graduate School of the Arts, and she lives in New York City.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780393041521
ISBN 10	0393041522
Title	Hester Among the Ruins
Author	Binnie Kirshenbaum
Condition	Unavailable
Publisher	WW Norton & Co
Year published	2002-03-27
Number of pages	288
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.