Devotion (novella)

Devotion
Author Botho Strauß
Original title Die Widmung
Translator Sophie Wilkins
Country West Germany
Language German
Publisher Carl Hanser Verlag
Publication date
 1977
Published in English
 1979
Pages 144
ISBN 978-3-446-12415-8

Devotion (German: Die Widmung) is a 1977 novella by the German writer Botho Strauß. It tells the story of a Berlin bookseller in his early 30s who is abandoned by his girlfriend, isolates himself and begins to write literature, convinced that the girlfriend will return.

Publication

The book was published through Carl Hanser Verlag in 1977. It appeared in English in 1979, translated by Sophie Wilkins and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.[1] Northwestern University Press released a new edition in 1995 as part of its Hydra Books series.[2]

Reception

Lore Dickstein of the Saturday Review described the book as "a brilliant, hard-edged analysis of the act of writing". Dickstein wrote: "The spare abstract quality of Strauss's language is the reflection of his subject: the isolation of the self/artist in a world where no one really listens. While some readers will prefer the more richly furnished world of a novelist like V.S. Naipaul, this book by Botho Strauss is like a sculpture by Giacometti—clean, pared-down, and without a shred of unnecessary flesh."[3]

References

  1. ↑ "Devotion (Book, 1979)". WorldCat. Retrieved 2016-11-29.
  2. ↑ "Devotion (Book, 1995)". WorldCat. Retrieved 2016-11-29.
  3. ↑ Dickstein, Lore (1979-07-21). "Books in Brief". Saturday Review. p. 50. Retrieved 2016-11-29.

Further reading

External links

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