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The Listener, or a Description of a Route with a Hidden Motive

by Siegfried Lenz

This week in the Tales from the Library Book Club we are reading 'The Listener, or a Description of a Route with a Hidden Motive' by Siegfreid Lenz published in 1926. This story tells of a disgruntled writer described only as 'the visitor' who is determined to be heard out by his critic, he chooses to confront the critic at a holiday retreat only to discover that he is not home and is greeted only by his wife, described as 'The Critics Wife' and 'The Lady', rather than leave he decides to wait and instead finds himself reading his story to her instead. 

The story is quite unusual in a few ways, it is oddly structured into 3 small chapters, which is peculiar considering the short length of the story. Lenz also does not use characters names or speech marks to determine moments when characters are speaking, the story is additionally headed off with a note that it is a narrative tribute to Teofila Reich-Ranicki who was a Polish-German artist, translator and survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto.

About the author

Siegfried Lenz was born in Lyck, East Prussia, the son of a customs officer. He was a German writer of novels, short stories, and essays, as well as dramas for radio and the theatre. In 2000 he received the Goethe Prize on the 250th Anniversary of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's birth.

According to documents released in June 2007 he joined the Nazi Party at the age of 18 on 20 April 1944 along with several other German authors and personalities such as Dieter Hildebrandt and Martin Walser. However, Lenz subsequently said he had been included in a collective ‘joining’ of the Party without his knowledge. In World War II he was a soldier in the German Kriegsmarine. 

In 1988 Lenz was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, a prize given annually at the Frankfurt Book Fair. A year later Lenz was honoured with the highest decoration of Hamburg, honorary citizenship. In 2004 Lenz was named an honorary citizen of Schleswig Holstein and in October 2011 an honorary citizen of his hometown Ełk. In 2010 he won the Italian International Nonino Prize.

What is the book club?

Join us every week for a book club, each week we will read a new short story of part of a larger book, the books will be made available as an audio book and we will meet as a group via zoom to chat about the story. All are welcome, hope to see you there. 

How to join the club to chat

Once you are singed up the link to join via zoom will apear above on this page at 3PM on Thursday. To join you will need a phone/tablet or laptop with a built in camera and microphone (most modern devices come with this) you may need to download the zoom app onto your phone if you are using a phone to join. 

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