"Mein Bruder" is a book written by Joseph Zoderer. In the novel, we are introduced to two brothers, Tom and Gregi. It is told in the past tense, as if it were a recording of their words with time distorting each character's perspective, through time, because each of them live different moments that alter their perspective of events.
Tom lived during the end of the Second World War and before his brother did. Gregi finds himself in Switzerland after he was war orphan and got lost on the way to the US from Germany.
The narrative begins with Gregi's arrival in Switzerland and his struggle to survive in rural Swiss community. His first task after settling in was finding a job so that he can support himself and move to a new life in the heart of Zurich. Before his visit to Zurich, he meets his sister's husband, Hans. Tom serves in WW2 as a pilot and is shot down in 1943 in Norway, while Gregi gets lost during migration and ends up in a German orphanage where he makes friends with Tomasz and Karlheinz. They decide to leave and pursue their future in Europe together. This travel plan further pushes off the brothers, causing them to bicker. Tom becomes a pilot in the US army and during one mission, he is piloting a fighter plane without radar and guidance (he doesn't have a map or a GPS system, which became easier available in his childhood, but was common back then) and getting lost, lands in an unmarked airstrip in New Zealand. While there, Tom doesn't know how to communicate with locals and decides to head straight to work, which is only possible through language. Two young women hear him speak and decide to stay in the town and teach him language to avoid losing the chance to have him as an intern. During this stint, the last 3 years of the war bring to completion around him. Before the attack of Maiden is launched, they head out the town to escape and meet the remainder of their family, who had escaped to America after the war began. The whole family survives the attack but loses home and belongings. Tom is at his peak and having been captured, yet escapes. He eventually finds Switzerland, where he meets Tomek's father in law, Hans, who falls in love with him. Gregi finishes his master's degree in Zurich and becomes closer to his step father, Hans and continues to save money so that he may return to war and join the British army. But when he returns he experiences first hand of the hardships that occurred in Italy and experiences fear and loss making him realize how much strength lies in those who commit to such a risky mission. Hans hopes he would go away, allowing him to marry Gregi, for fear of losing him once again, much less intentionally (and also due to him being married but not by law) when returning to war, while Tom stays with him in Tafelmasse awaiting Gregi for six months. Eventually Gregi returns
Книга австрийского поэта и автора Joseph Zoderer «Mein Bruder schleppt sich auf Ende» («Мой брат откладывает своё вечное путешествие»), впервые напечатанная в 1963 году, существенно отличалась от его предыдущих стихов. Если творчество предыдущих периодов характеризовалось националистическим пафосом и пуризмом, часто подчеркнутой простотой языка, а также подчёркнутым пренебрежением к литературной традиции, то в этой книге открыто присутствующие отсылки к «Божественной комедии» Данте, в том числе аналогия главного героя с Вергилием, а кульминационным центром становится описание Ада. Позднее в тексте неоднократно подчёркивается, что эта книга наполнена кровавыми кошмара, чудовищными муками и так далее.
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