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A Love Made Out of Nothing & Zohara's Journey
With this volume, Barbara Honigmann gives us the stories of two very different women and their attempts to rise from the ashes of their former lives.
The narrator of "A Love Made Out of Nothing" is a woman who leaves her life in Berlin to start over as a student in Paris. Although she has escaped from her past life and is finally living in the city of her dreams, she finds herself isolated and imprisoned. She discovers that the life of an expatriate has its own difficulties and loneliness, and that she remains tied to her old existence by her complex relationship with her possessive and manipulative father, whose history of wandering from city to city and wife to wife has cast a long shadow over her life.
"Zohara's Journey" tells the story of Zohara, a devoutly religious Sephardic Jew "repatriated" to southern France during the Algerian War. Having wandered from one French city to another with her husband Simon, an itinerant rabbi who claims to be the Rabbi of Singapore, she wants to believe that the family has finally settled in Strasbourg when Simon returns from a long absence and disappears with their six children. In the struggle to locate her children and piece her life back together, Zohara comes to question the man she thought she knew, and the religion that has dominated both of their lives.
Honigmann's view encompasses the universal (and perhaps the mythical) as well as the autobiographical and social. In these two intimate novellas, she communicates in spare and elegant prose the terror and the thrill that come with starting over. Dense with imagery and emotion, these powerful novellas speak directly to the nature of isolation and, ultimately, to the necessity of self-reliance.
The narrator of "A Love Made Out of Nothing" is a woman who leaves her life in Berlin to start over as a student in Paris. Although she has escaped from her past life and is finally living in the city of her dreams, she finds herself isolated and imprisoned. She discovers that the life of an expatriate has its own difficulties and loneliness, and that she remains tied to her old existence by her complex relationship with her possessive and manipulative father, whose history of wandering from city to city and wife to wife has cast a long shadow over her life.
"Zohara's Journey" tells the story of Zohara, a devoutly religious Sephardic Jew "repatriated" to southern France during the Algerian War. Having wandered from one French city to another with her husband Simon, an itinerant rabbi who claims to be the Rabbi of Singapore, she wants to believe that the family has finally settled in Strasbourg when Simon returns from a long absence and disappears with their six children. In the struggle to locate her children and piece her life back together, Zohara comes to question the man she thought she knew, and the religion that has dominated both of their lives.
Honigmann's view encompasses the universal (and perhaps the mythical) as well as the autobiographical and social. In these two intimate novellas, she communicates in spare and elegant prose the terror and the thrill that come with starting over. Dense with imagery and emotion, these powerful novellas speak directly to the nature of isolation and, ultimately, to the necessity of self-reliance.
- GenresGerman Literature
167 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2002
About the author
Barbara Honigmann
24 books9 followersBorn 1949 in East-Berlin – lives in Strasbourg.
Foremost known as author. Paints since 1976. Emigrated from East Berlin to Strasbourg in 1984. Numerous awards for her literary work. Among many: others Kleist-Prize, Berlin 2000 and Max-Frisch-Prize by the city of Zurich, 2011. Exhibitions at Galerie Michael Hasenclever, Munich 1992, 1997, 2002 (catalogues), Brecht-Haus, Berlin 2000, Barbara Honigmann International Conference (Literature and Painting) at Hebrew University, Jerusalem 2011.
Recommended literature: Amir Eshel, Yfaat Weiss, Kurz hinter der Wahrheit und dicht neben der Lüge. Zum Werk Barbara Honigmanns, Munich 2013.
Foremost known as author. Paints since 1976. Emigrated from East Berlin to Strasbourg in 1984. Numerous awards for her literary work. Among many: others Kleist-Prize, Berlin 2000 and Max-Frisch-Prize by the city of Zurich, 2011. Exhibitions at Galerie Michael Hasenclever, Munich 1992, 1997, 2002 (catalogues), Brecht-Haus, Berlin 2000, Barbara Honigmann International Conference (Literature and Painting) at Hebrew University, Jerusalem 2011.
Recommended literature: Amir Eshel, Yfaat Weiss, Kurz hinter der Wahrheit und dicht neben der Lüge. Zum Werk Barbara Honigmanns, Munich 2013.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 15, 2026
I enjoyed both stories. They capture an austere sadness, tied together by themes of loneliness, isolation, and the feeling of being unmoored.
April 20, 2022
A major find, completely original & unpredictable. The two stories here center on solitary characters in crisis, & the sharp prose details their odysseys with clarity & excitement, never settling into gloom or stagnation but always maintaining the thrill of life & its constant possibilities. There is a great balance between action & characterization, & Honigmann is an author who possesses the refreshing courage to avoid the cliche & easy bourgeouis solutions, knowing how to construct a compelling scenario while making one emotionally invested in the protagonist. The back cover of this wonderful edition from David Godine's verbamundi series proclaims this "new voice," the first appearance in English of this award-winning writer. 20 years later this remains, sadly, her only translated work.
June 26, 2013
two sad, beautiful novellas. a subtle lyricism that reminded sometimes of early handke, sometimes of the edgy desperation portrayed so well by elena ferrante. at yet other times what was brought to mind -- even though honigmann here risks sentiment much more -- was sebald's sacred, dry handling of the stories of refugees and immigrants. what stands out however is an emotional and graceful prose that embodies outsider and diaspora life, its various defeats and small, bittersweet triumphs.
A LOVE MADE OUT OF NOTHING tells a story similar to honigmann's biography. here, an adult daughter of a german jewish father and a bulgarian jewish mother self-exiles herself from east berlin to a lonely paris.
one of the more incredible bits is when she discovers her father's diary entries from 1946, when he returns to germany. an almost casual description of the situation he then found himself in: "Someone asks us if we're Italian. They no longer remember what Jews look like" (71)
the second novella ZOHARA'S JOURNEY is more straight-forward, in a way, and becomes, by its end, a semi-adventure story (before a final collapse). another great portrait, it speaks of a sephardic jewish refugee from algeria living in france with her six kids -- a woman cruelly trapped by fate and her crooked, confidence-man husband.
i hope there's more of her soon in english.
pick it up from the publisher or at your library or at an indie bookstore near you.
A LOVE MADE OUT OF NOTHING tells a story similar to honigmann's biography. here, an adult daughter of a german jewish father and a bulgarian jewish mother self-exiles herself from east berlin to a lonely paris.
one of the more incredible bits is when she discovers her father's diary entries from 1946, when he returns to germany. an almost casual description of the situation he then found himself in: "Someone asks us if we're Italian. They no longer remember what Jews look like" (71)
the second novella ZOHARA'S JOURNEY is more straight-forward, in a way, and becomes, by its end, a semi-adventure story (before a final collapse). another great portrait, it speaks of a sephardic jewish refugee from algeria living in france with her six kids -- a woman cruelly trapped by fate and her crooked, confidence-man husband.
i hope there's more of her soon in english.
pick it up from the publisher or at your library or at an indie bookstore near you.
May 19, 2014
One time I saw Cake play at an outdoor festival and the singer had a cold and he tried to get a lot of audience participation to cover the fact that he wasn't really there. When they finished, I thought, "Huh, I wonder what it's like to see Cake play live." That's kind of the feeling this novella gave me (I only read A Love Made Out of Nothing); like she was relating a story someone else told her and she didn't know what to do with all the parts.
April 9, 2020
April 2020: I only read “A Love Made Out of Nothing” and not both stories, but still I really enjoyed it!
April 2021: read both this time. prefer A Love Made Out of Nothing (4stars) over Zohara’s Journey (3atars)
April 2021: read both this time. prefer A Love Made Out of Nothing (4stars) over Zohara’s Journey (3atars)
November 11, 2011
This was a sad book. She loses her father and now she feels more lost than she did when she went to paris. She feels broken and just wants to feel like she belongs to someone or some place.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews