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The Tower: Tales from a Lost Country Reprint Edition, Kindle Edition

3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 23 ratings

In derelict Dresden a cultivated, middle-class family does all it can to cope amid the Communist downfall. This striking tapestry of the East German experience is told through the tangled lives of a soldier, surgeon, nurse and publisher. With evocative detail, Uwe Tellkamp masterfully reveals the myriad perspectives of the time as people battled for individuality, retreated to nostalgia, chose to conform, or toed the perilous line between East and West. Poetic, heartfelt and dramatic, The Tower vividly resurrects the sights, scents and sensations of life in the GDR as it hurtled towards 9 November 1989.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A lush tapestry of characters, composed of a thousand scenes and situations, and punctuated by poetic digressions, The Tower brings a German ghost to life . . . The Tower stands as a monument against forgetting." —Le Monde

About the Author

Uwe Tellkamp was born in 1968 in Dresden. After completing his military service, he lost his place to study medicine on the grounds of 'political unreliability'. He was arrested in 1989 but went on to study medicine in Liepzig, Dresden and New York, later becoming a surgeon. He has won numerous regional prizes for poetry, as well as the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize for The Sleep in the Clocks. In 2008, he won the German Book Prize for The Tower.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00N4CF8SK
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin; Reprint edition (November 6, 2014)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 6, 2014
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2849 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 1017 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 23 ratings

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Uwe Tellkamp
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Customer reviews

3.7 out of 5 stars
23 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2020
    We visited Dresden in both 1982 (when The Tower starts) and in 1996 (six years after it ended). The Tower gives a vivid picture of what lay below the surface visitors saw. The plot follows a surgeon and his family, including his son who must plot a course to medical school after army service. Draftees will recognize some military experiences, but there are special twists in the Eastern Block. Even more foreign than military service is a society almost devoid of consumer goods. The reality of the people portrayed is striking. It is hard for anyone who did not experience it to understand, but it is well worth investing the time to explore this work. I suspect it is very important to understand both sides of united Germany. Consumer goods were only a distraction on either side of the border.
  • Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2015
    An interesting narrative of life on the fringes of East German society, when intellectual aristocrats (doctors, professors, and other professional persons) lived symbolically overlooking the city of Dresden. The ongoing collapse of the GDR is hardly mentioned until it becomes a reality at the very end. There is considerable detail about army life and the autocratic power system in the second part of this long novel.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2017
    Good description of life in East Germany prior to 1989 but Telekamp added details that did not enhance the story but made the reading tedious and at times boring. The translation was rather poor; the sentences were long without proper interpretation and at times the choice of words was confusing.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2017
    Just finished the German audio version of this book. Cold chills ran down my spine when the narrative of suppression, loss of individuality, methods of manipulation, intimidation and brute force inflicted on the "aberrant" individual sounded all too familiar. Too familiar, if not identical, to stories from the same country, just 50 years earlier.

    The East German Government always made it a point that it was not the "successor state" of the Third Reich, it passed that heritage conveniently over to West Germany.

    This true fiction - fictional characters in historical settings and with real experiences - proved the East German Government partially right: you can't inherit what is still alive. The methods were the same: Gestapo style manipulative interrogations, denunciation, fake legality, none of that was dead in the East German "Worker and Peasant Paradise" in the Real Sozialismus of East Germany.

    Any one who has utopian views of egalitarian paradises on earth where few rule many under the pretext of social justice should read this book.
    3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • B. Portes
    5.0 out of 5 stars East German struggle
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 5, 2015
    A wonder vignette of East Germany. It covers a family over the whole period with great precision and sympathy. A great read.
  • joanna willey
    4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 9, 2015
    A complex cast of characters but worth a read
  • Mr P J M Doherty
    3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 5, 2016
    Hard work.
  • john scoble
    2.0 out of 5 stars Two Stars
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 8, 2015
    Too wordy and lacking structure.
  • Andrew Gimson
    5.0 out of 5 stars Back in the DDR
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 24, 2016
    Love this book. Really feels like you are back in the DDR.

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