Gehen, ging, gegangen

German language

Published May 30, 2015

ISBN:: 9783813503708

(1 review)

How does one cope with the passing of time when forced to inactivity? How do you deal with the loss of those you loved? Who inherits the legacy? Richard, a retired professor, has an idea while encountering asylum seekers on Oranienplatz. He thinks that the answers to his questions can be found where no one else is looking: among young refugees from Africa who have been stranded in Berlin and sentenced to years of waiting. And suddenly this world looks at him, a resident of old Europe, and may know better than he himself who he really is.

Jenny Erpenbeck tells a story on her unique way about the art of ignoring and seeing, death and war, eternal waiting, and everything that lies hidden beneath the surface.

3 editions

airdog reviewed Gehen, ging, gegangen by Jenny Erpenbeck

Interesting but not earth shattering

3 stars

Everyday life viewed from the perspective of a retired Berlin professor and that of African refugees who are constantly pushed from country to country after having entered Europe through Lampedusa. They can work in Italy (their port of entrance) but there is no work to be had there and cannot work in any other country. Their daily life, as well as their past, is constantly intertwined with that of said professor bringing to light the unfathomable difference a few papers can make on a life.