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The Train Was on Time
Series: Penguin European Writers
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Check link for latest rating. ( 3,739 ratings, 369 reviews)
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Format: Paperback / softback
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The Train Was on Time
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
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Description
A hauntingly beautiful tale about a young German soldier, from a Nobel Prize-winning author, introduced by Anna Funder.
Twenty-four-year-old Andreas, a disillusioned German soldier, is travelling on a troop train to the Eastern Front when he has an awful premonition that he will die in exactly five days. As he hurtles towards his death, he reflects on the chaos around him - the naive soldiers, the painfully thin girl who pours his coffee, the ruined countryside - with sudden, heart-breaking poignancy.
Arriving in Poland the night before he is certain he will die, he meets Olina, a beautiful prostitute, and together they attempt to escape his fate.
The Train Was on Time explores themes of fate, existential dread, and the fleeting moments of connection that make life meaningful amid chaos.
Series: Penguin European Writers
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The Train Was on Time
A hauntingly beautiful tale about a young German soldier, from a Nobel Prize-winning author, introduced by Anna Funder. Twenty-four-year-old Andreas, a disillusioned German soldier, is travelling on a troop train to the Eastern Front when he has an awful premonition that he will die in exactly five days. As he hurtles towards his death, he reflects on the chaos around...Paperback$2400Elsewhere:$2600Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
The Train Was on Time by Heinrich BΓΆll is praised for its creative originality, stylistic perfection, and unique literary outlook. Esteemed authors like Joseph Heller and John Ashbery have highlighted BΓΆll's intelligence and innovative narrative style. Readers find themselves completely immersed in the fate of the protagonist, Private Andreas, with the story's gripping nature making it hard to put down. Reviewers emphasise the novel's ability to convey profound emotions and necessary themes, making it a powerful and essential read.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780241370384
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 04 April 2019
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Penguin Books Ltd
Contributors:
- Introduction by Anna Funder
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 8.0mm
Width: 130.0mm
Height: 198.0mm
Weight: 103g
Pages: 128
About the Author
Heinrich B ll won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1972. Born in Cologne in 1917, B ll was raised in a pacifist Catholic family who later opposed Nazism. After an apprenticeship at a bookseller's, he was drafted into the Nazi Wehrmacht before being sent to an American prisoner-of-war camp in 1945. After the war he enrolled at university, but dropped out to write about his shattering experiences as a soldier- The Train Was on Time was his first novel and he went on to become one of the most important postwar German authors. B ll served for several years as the president of International P.E.N. and was a leading defender of the intellectual freedom of writers throughout the world. He died in 1985.
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