“The Lost Europeans” (1959) by Emanuel Litvinoff

BOOK: “The Lost Europeans” (1959) by Emanuel Litvinoff

 On Thursday 8th September 2016 HBG returned from its Summer recess to discuss Hamish's trio of tip top selections.  First up was “The Lost Europeans” (1959) by Emanuel Litvinoff....

Martin Stone returns to the city from which his family was driven in 1938. He has concealed his destination from his father, and hopes to win some form of restitution for the depressed old man living in exile in London. THE LOST EUROPEANS portrays a tense, ruined yet flourishing Berlin where nothing is quite what it seems.

'The Lost Europeans’ is the story of two Jewish men, Martin Stone and Hugo Krantz, seeking answers and closure in 1950s Berlin. Martin Stone returns from London to Berlin, the city of his birth, to claim financial restitution for his father, whose bank was appropriated by the Nazis. His older friend, Hugo Krantz, also fled Berlin for London in the 1930s, after enjoying success as a celebrated theatrical writer in Weimar Republic era Berlin. Hugo has since returned and resettled in Berlin, but he cannot rest until he has discovered whether his lover, who betrayed him to the Nazis and then became an SS officer, survived the war. 

The plot becomes increasingly absorbing however it is the stunning evocation of post-War Berlin where this book scores most highly. Emanuel Litvinoff is a hell of a writer and we frequently paused to reread various sections. Perhaps not surprisingly it also put us in mind of Carol Reed’s 1949 cinematic masterpiece 'The Third Man’. Both works feature a post-War melting pot imbued with cold war paranoia and peopled by shady, duplicitous characters who may not be quite what they seem.

This powerful novel really deserves to be rediscovered, for its magnificent portrayal of a city trying to rebuild and come to terms with its monstrously violent past, and its present as a divided world, all of which informs even the most casual conversations and encounters.

Keith - unobtrusive 7/10
Robin - amazing book 9.5/10
Tristan - Hamish got lucky 9/10
Nick - 6.5/10
Nigel - 10/10
Hamish - 9/10

MUSIC: “Neu! '75” by Neu! 

Neu! '75 was recorded and mixed at Conny Plank's studio between December 1974 and January 1975. It was released in 1975 by Brain Records, and officially reissued on CD on May 29, 2001 by Astralwerks in the US and byGrönland Records in the UK. Illegal bootleg CDs (derived from vinyl) had been available in the latter half of the 1990s on the Germanofon label.

We loved it.  Sorta.

Nick - enjoyable
Hamish - I need more of this stuff
Tristan - yes to Neu! (no to Kraftwerk)
Robin - quite nice
Keith - dated and not for me
Nigel - loved it then, still love it now

FILM: Couscous (La Graine et le Mulet) (2008) directed by Abdellatif Kechiche

Couscous takes place in the Mediterranean port of Sète, situated on the Golfe du Lion halfway between Marseille and the Spanish border, where 60-year-old Arab immigrant, Slimane Beiji (Habib Boufares), has worked in a ship repair yard for 35 years.

Hamish - Sete tempted me in
Tristan - enjoyed it v much
Robin - wouldn't rush back
Nigel - liked Belly Dance
Nick - didn't download it properly

Endorse it

Here's what we're endorsing at the moment...

Robin: Stranger Things (Netfilx TV series)
Robin: Bearsden
Robin: RY X (Singer)

Hamish: Tour de France

Nick: Victoria (ITV TV series)

Tristan: Puy-de-Dôme (Place)

Keith: Black Mass (Film)
Keith: Ellen's Stardust Diner (Place)

Nigel: Fleabag (BBC TV series on iPlayer)

Nigel: Stranger Things (Netfilx TV series)

Nigel: 'Love and Hate' by Michael Kiwanuka (Music)

Nigel: 'Foreverland' by The Divine Comedy (Music)

Nigel: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - 'Jesus Alone'