Land of Green Plums

By: Herta MÃ¼ller

Write A Review

Paperback | 23 November 2010

At a Glance

Paperback
272 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
20.83 x 13.97 x 1.55

Paperback

$35.17

or 4 interest-free payments of $8.79 with

Aims to ship in 7 to 10 business days

Set in Romania at the height of Ceauescu's reign of terror, The Land of Green Plums tells the story of a group of young people who leave the impoverished province for the city in search of better prospects and camaraderie. But their hopes are ravaged, because the city, no less than the countryside, bears everywhere the mark of the dictatorship's corrosive touch. All the narrator's friends--teachers and students of vaguely dissident allegiance--betray her, do away with themselves, or both. As they do so, we see the way the totalitarian state comes to inhabit every human realm and how everyone, even the strongest, must either bend to the oppressors or resist them and thereby perish.

Herta M?ller, herself a survivor of Ceausescu's police state, speaks from intimate experience. Scene by scene, in language at once harsh and poetic, she constructs a devastating picture of a society and a generation ruined by fear. In simple images of hieroglyphic power--policeman filling their pockets and mouths with green plums; girls sleeping with abattoir workers for bags of offal; a docile proletariat making things no one wants--"tin sheep and wooden watermelons"--M?ller anatomizes a country and its citizens and the corruption that has rotted the core of both.

Industry Reviews

"Unflinching. . . Ms. M?ller's vision of a police state manned by plum thieves reads like a kind of fairy tale on the mingled evils of gluttony, stupidity and brutality." --The New York Times Book Review

"M?ller has triumphed in her honesty, and The Land of Green Plums is her testimony. . . .Describes in precisely hewn detail what is was like to live in Romania under communism." --The Washington Post

"Ms. M?ller's rich, harsh, obsessive imagery captures the surreal beauty and the difficulty of Ceausescu-era Romania." --The Boston Book Review

"This heartbreaking tale is bitter and dark, yet beautiful. . . Stark and telling." --San Diego Union-Tribune

"The Land of Green Plums works hauntingly, disturbingly well." --The Guardian (UK)

"Impressive, wholly authentic. . . a bleak fable with the flickering intensity of a nightmare." --International Herald Tribune

"This is a novel of strong, spare poetry in translation. Again and again, its speech startles. Then it quickly sounds just right, and it becomes hard to imagine there might not have been a Herta M?ller to transcribe these urgent whispers." --The Australian

"By paying careful attention to the slightest nuances of life in Romania the book gives an accurate description of what it was like to be alive anywhere in Eastern Europe during the years of communism. . . M?ller has triumphed in her honesty and The Land of Green Plums is her testimony." --The Washington Times

Shipping

	Standard Shipping	Express Shipping
Metro postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Regional postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Rural postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95

How to return your order

At Booktopia, we offer hassle-free returns in accordance with our returns policy. If you wish to return an item, please get in touch with Booktopia Customer Care.

Additional postage charges may be applicable.