There Stands My House

a memoir

Hans Keilson

The first English-language translation of the memoirs of Hans Keilson, one of Europe’s most masterful and remarkable writers

In this unique work, which was composed in the 1990s and only recently rediscovered, Keilson brings back a bygone era in snapshots from a life spanning one hundred years. The external stations of this life — his youth in Brandenburg, his student years and the fast life in Berlin, his exile in Holland, his survival in hiding, and the loss of his parents — are framed by economic crisis, anti-Semitism, and war, but also by friendship, music, and hope. Hans Keilson reveals these themes in gentle, quizzical reflections and fragments, producing an unforgettable portrait of his time.

The memoir is followed by a beguiling conversation about Keilson’s one hundred years of living and writing. It provides an incomparable insight into the man whom The New York Times recently hailed as ‘one of the world’s very greatest writers’.

Hans Keilson

Hanskeilson_lr_cr_martin_spieles

Author photo
© Martin Spieles / S. Fischer Verlag

Hans Keilson was born in Germany but, following the Nazis’ rise to power, was forced to move to the Netherlands before the outbreak of World War II. An award-winning psychiatrist, he was particularly renowned for specialising in the traumatic effects of the Holocaust on Jewish survivors. Keilson’s best-known literary works include The Death of the Adversary, Comedy in a Minor Key, and Life Goes On (forthcoming).

Elena Lappin

Elena Lappin is a writer and international literary scout. She is the author of a collection of stories called Foreign Brides and a novel called The Nose, and her investigative narrative about the case of Fragments, a famous Holocaust hoax, was the cover title in Granta’s 'Truth and Lies' issue (2000). She has contributed journalism, features, reviews, and columns to a variety of international media outlets, and is now working on a memoir. She lives in London.

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Format: Pb
Extent: 128pp
Size: 198mm x 128mm
ISBN (13): 9781921844614
RRP: $24.95
Pub date: January 2012

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Rights held:

ANZ, English-language translation