Research Catalog
Library for the war-wounded : a novel
- Title
- Library for the war-wounded : a novel / Monika Helfer ; translated by Gillian Davidson.
- Author
- Helfer, Monika, 1947-
- Publication
- New York ; London : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024.
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| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person. | Text | Use in library | JFD 24-859 | Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315 |
Details
- Additional Authors
- Davidson, Gillian
- Description
- 199 pages; 22 cm
- Summary
- "Inspired by the author's family history, this...story transports us to the aftermath of World War II where her father, Josef Helfer, after returning from the war an amputee, managed a convalescent home for the war-wounded and became obsessed with the home's unlikely and remarkable library"--
- The internationally bestselling novel--a daughter's portrait of her WWII veteran father, assembled from shards of memory. We called him Vati, Dad. Not Papa. He thought it sounded modern. He wanted to present himself to us, and through us, as a man in tune with the modern age. A man who could be read as having a different past. Inspired by the author's family history, Library for the War-Wounded transports readers to the aftermath of World War II, uncovering the life of Helfer's father, Josef. Born with the stigma of illegitimacy, he found solace in books, and his education was eventually funded by the Catholic Church. Drafted into the Wehrmacht, he witnessed the horrors of the Eastern Front and returned from the war an amputee. He married his nurse and brought his family to the high, idyllic slopes of the Austrian Alps, where he took a position as manager of a convalescent home for war-wounded. Josef was a man of many mysteries. To his daughter Monika, none was greater than his obsession with the home's unlikely and remarkable library, his great treasure and comfort as the country barrels away from the memory of war. He will stop at nothing to save it--even when it tears apart his family. Beautifully restrained and compressed, Library for the War-Wounded turns lived experience into great literature by confronting the universal question: Can we ever truly know our parents?
- Uniform Title
- Vati. English
- Alternative Title
- Vati.
- Subject
- 1939-1945
- Amputees > Fiction
- Books and reading > Fiction
- Families > Austria > Fiction
- Fathers > Fiction
- Fathers and daughters > Fiction
- Hospital libraries > Fiction
- Hospitals, Convalescent > Fiction
- Libraries > Fiction
- Veterans > Fiction
- World War, 1939-1945 > Austria > Fiction
- Family members
- Fathers
- Families
- Fathers and daughters
- Hospital libraries
- Hospitals, Convalescent
- Libraries
- Veterans
- Amputees
- Books and reading
- Austria > History > Fiction
- Austria
- Genre/Form
- Historical fiction.
- Domestic fiction.
- Autobiographical fiction.
- Novels.
- History.
- Fiction.
- Note
- "First published in 2021 in Germany as Vati by Carl Hanser Verlag. First published in the United States 2024."--Title page verso.
- Call Number
- JFD 24-859
- ISBN
- 9781639732395
- 163973239X
- 9781526663610
- 1526663619
- OCLC
- 1416852080
- Author
- Helfer, Monika, 1947- author.
- Title
- Library for the war-wounded : a novel / Monika Helfer ; translated by Gillian Davidson.
- Publisher
- New York ; London : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024.
- Type of Content
- text
- Type of Medium
- unmediated
- Type of Carrier
- volume
- Chronological Term
- 1939-1945
- Added Author
- Davidson, Gillian, translator.
- Research Call Number
- JFD 24-859