Clare Winstanley

I first read this as an A Level text in 1967/8. I had a wonderful German teacher and, with her help, the book really came to life. I have since read it (in the original German) two or three more times, most recently last week. The main characters, Der Junge, Gregor, Knudsen, Helander and Judith are depicted with great skill and it is a mark of Andersch's genius that, in such a short novel, he is able to get to the heart of each individual. Descriptions of landscape, weather and buildings add immensely to the feeling of the big threat hanging over everyone. Die Anderen (the Nazis) are lurking behind everyone's shoulder though the boy doesn't yet know this. His need to escape the mundane and find his own Sansibar is finally fulfilled, though not how he might have expected. I still remember the moving photograph of Barlach's Lesender Klosterschuler in my old school text book. This book remains my favourite book of all time.