For our January YMTA bookclub we read Altes Land by Dörte Hansen, published in 2015. The novel was suggested by some of our German readers and features in Paul Sullivan’s selection in The Guardian of the 10 of the best novels set in Germany, where he calls it ‘something of a surprise hit’ with readers. In English the novel is entitled This House is Mine and the readers of the novel in English read the wonderful translation by Anne Stokes.
The novel is set in an aging farmhouse in a fruit growing area not far from Hamburg. The narrative opens in 1945 where two characters, Vera and her mother Hildegard, arrive as refugees from eastern Prussia, as many refugees did at that time in Germany. The narrative moves between 1945 and present-day Hamburg, where the readers meet Anne, a young mother. Our discussion opened with this narrative chronology, which some of us had difficulties with at the beginning, but that we got used to and in the words of one our German readers, like a ‘spiral’ or a puzzle that comes together it was ‘fascinating’. In discussing the characters of the refugees Vera and her mother Hildegard, we felt that the relations between them were very troubled. We discussed what one reader characterised as ‘genetic spirals’, that they were unhappy and were stuck within recurring negative behavioural patterns as they lived in the splendid but decaying farmhouse where they have been given refuge. In contrast, in the present-day narrative the character Anne is very different. The chair of the YMTA Ursula felt that as a reader she was impatient for someone to take care of the decaying farmhouse house and that this was a metaphor for self-healing of the refugee characters. Ursula found it a great relief when Anne, who we discover is the niece of Vera, starts to visit her aunt and care for the house! Our German readers noted that they were hopeful for the younger generation, that Vera needed to bond with her niece and that as readers we were waiting for a relationship between these two to develop. Dörte Hansen’s narrative we found lyrical, humorous and very well observed. We discussed how the novel portrays the changing nature of life in the countryside as wealthy Hamburg dwellers move into the village and start to renovate the traditional houses. There are some funny scenes, such as a townie journalist coming to join in with traditional sausage making practices and being unable at all to stomach the actual process of making sausages. We all enjoyed the portrait of the happy go lucky neighbour of Britte, who has a family of four children and lives in chaos - with dogs and mess but her children are happy - she doesn’t care what the neighbours think! The characters who people the village in the present-day narrative represent two types of community – old-style farmers and those who are moving in from ‘hipster’ type Hamburg families. In the course of our discussions, three our German readers shared refugee experiences that resonated with those portrayed in the novel. One reader’s husband had come as young boy to Schleswig Holstein as a refugee and with 11 people from three families worked for eight years on a farm. Another reader had come herself as a refugee in the 1950’s with her aunt, mother and 3 children - they were welcomed when they arrived but she was not ‘shocked’ by the hostile treatment of refugees depicted in the novel. A third reader’s parents were refugees from Lithuania who had had to flee with their elderly mother. They were given refuge and worked on a farm, although sadly their elderly mother died there. Our reader had listened carefully to her refugee mother’s stories and understands the idea of generational trauma, the very strong impact of the feeling that you have not fully arrived and have not really ever got settled, which the character of Vera feels in the novel. This reader felt that Hansen, who is the same age as her, had experiences similar to hers and that of her family lying behind the novel. We then discussed how of the generation who had come themselves to Germany, some now have ‘big problems’ with the new waves of refugees that have come to live in Germany. One scene in particular struck all of us as very beautiful. As the relationship between Vera and her niece Anne develops, Vera shows her niece aspects of the life in the fruit-growing area. She takes Anne to see how framers protect the early young blossom on very cold nights through ‘frost protection’ (p. 285) by spraying the blossoms with fine water droplets, so that the trees, in the early morning, are covered in ice and the branches, leaves and blossoms ‘looked as though they’d been cast in glass. The trees were like candelabras, sparkling brightly in the early morning sunlight. It was like walking in a hall of mirrors’ (p. 285). This passage struck us all as memorable and very beautiful – the very old technique to protect vulnerable blooms in early Spring. One of our readers shared with us their experiences of seeing this technique in use in this area of Northern Germany. As the relationship between the older Vera and younger Anne grows, the cycle of pain down the generations in the novel starts to heal and the ice in Vera’s heart melts a little. As members of the book club, we felt that the ending, where the aging farmhouse is being restored offered hope and new beginnings in the village and to us as readers. There was much to discuss in Altes Land between us about the issues of refugees, the changing nature of the countryside in both the UK and Germany and inter-generational relationships. This was a great book to read and discuss! Amanda Naylor 21st March 2024 PS there is a highly recommended 2-part film version: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10432924/
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