Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Our Philosopher
Our Philosopher | Gert Hofmann
3 posts | 1 read | 2 to read
The time is the 1930s. Our philosopher is Herr Veilchenfeld, a renowned thinker and distinguished professor, who, after his sudden dismissal from the university, has retired to live quietly in a country town in the east of Germany. Our narrator is Hans, a clever and inquisitive boy. He relates a mix of things he witnesses himself and things he hears about from his father, the town doctor, who sees all sorts of people as he makes his rounds, even Veilchenfeld, with his troubled heart. Veilchenfeld is in decline, its truehe keeps ever more to himselfbut the town is in ever better shape. After the defeat of the Great War and the subsequent years of poverty, things are looking up. The old, worn people are heart-ened to see it. The young are exhilarated. It is up to them to promote and patrol this new uplifting realityto make it safe from the likes of Veilchenfeld, whose very existence is an affront to it. And so the doctor listens, and young Hans looks on.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
blurb
sisilia
Our Philosopher | Gert Hofmann
post image

For September bookclub. This is sooooo good 😍 Add this to your shopping cart, please!

BarbaraBB Will do! 2mo
32 likes1 stack add1 comment
review
The_Penniless_Author
Our Philosopher | Gert Hofmann
post image
Pickpick

An examination of how otherwise good people can stand by silently and allow evil to take place, you won't hear explicit mention of the Nazi party, Jews, or anti-semitism, despite the fact that the story is set in a small German town in the 1930s, and the eponymous subject of the novel is clearly Jewish. Narrated by a young boy, Hans, we experience the philosopher's treatment through Hans' firsthand observations, explanations from his parents, 👇

The_Penniless_Author ...and overheard fragments of conversation amongst the town's adults. Narratively, it works well; Hans' naivete only enhances the brutality of what the philosopher suffers. There's a timeless, fairy tale quality to the structure that was quite powerful, given the subject matter. 13mo
44 likes1 stack add1 comment
blurb
The_Penniless_Author
Our Philosopher | Gert Hofmann
post image

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

Our philosopher has died suddenly.