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Moths
A dazzling, potent and beautiful novel about moths, running, jazz, the Siberian Gulag, and seizing the moment, reminiscent, in its dark European sensibility and compelling readability, of The Reader or Rachel Seiffert’s The Dark Room .
From the Hardcover edition.
From the Hardcover edition.
- GenresFiction
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
3 people are currently reading
42 people want to read
About the author
Karl Manders
5 booksInterview to the "The Book Depository Blog" TUE, 09 DEC 2008
Karl Manders worked for forty years as a journalist. He was a member of the Guardian Features Department for five years, and subsequently contributed to the paper for some years. For three years he was News Editor of Nature, and for a similar period Deputy Features Editor of The Telegraph Magazine. He has written for The Sunday Times, New Scientist, Scientific American, Radio Times and Reader's Digest. He moved to North America where he edited photographic arts titles, before returning to Europe, and particularly the Netherlands where he learned Dutch.
Mark Thwaite: What gave you the idea for Moths?
Karl Manders: Visiting the Site of a second world war concentration camp in Holland, where Dutch Jews were held before being sent east, I wondered what the people left behind believed their fate to be, and if they ever considered sending somebody to find out what happened to the deportees. My story began as the imagining of such a mission.
MT: You've been a journalist for many years, what was it made you finally get down to the hard work of writing a novel?
KM: Moths is the sixth novel I have written; it just happens to be the first one accepted for publication. Journalism, incidentally, is very hard work.
MT: How long did it take you to write Moths?
KM: Four months to write, and another month to revise.
MT: Jazz plays an important part in your book -- does it play a part in your life too?
KM: Having passed through a jazz nerd phase which began when I was fifteen, I now enjoy the music in a more laid-back way. But I still count myself a fan, and jazz means a lot to me.
MT: How do you write? Longhand or directly onto a computer, straight off or with lots and lots of editing?
KM: The development of the word-processing computer was the greatest technical advance made by man since shoes. I take care to write what I mean when I sit at the computer, but it is an inexpressible luxury to be able to revise and revise again, without having to type out a whole page. That’s what I do.
MT: What were the principle challenges of writing Moths and how did you overcome them?
KM: When I wrote Moths I was living in a woodland cottage in the eastern Netherlands, with no access to research facilities. I simply forged ahead with the information I held in my head, and hoped for the best. Only after the book was finished was I able to do some fact checking and correction.
MT: What do you do when you are not writing?
KM: I do what most other people do – I eat, sleep, read, go to the shops and ride my bike.
MT: Did you have an idea in your mind of your "ideal" reader? Did you write specifically for them?
KM: As a journalist I always have a publication’s typical reader in mind, and write in terms of what he or she will be comfortable with. As a fiction writer I can be more self-indulgent: I speak in my own voice, and trust that the story I tell will find a sympathetic readership.
MT: What are you working on now?
KM: I have completed two more novels since writing Moths, and I am currently working on a collection of short stories.
MT: Who is your favourite writer? What is/are your favourite book(s)?
KM: Anton Chekhov. My favourite books would include his collected stories, Nabokov’s Pale Fire, the Collected Stories of Katherine Mansfield, The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth, J. M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians, The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hasek, Truman Capote’s Other Voices, Other Rooms... That’s the beginning of the list.
MT: Do you have any tips for the aspiring writer!?
KM: Write every day. The hugely successful American author Pearl Buck (before your time my dear) wrote a page a day. That way, she said she could be sure of having at least three hundred and sixty-five pages (a substantial novel) to sell every year. When I’m writing a novel, I give myself an easily attainable daily target of seven hund
Karl Manders worked for forty years as a journalist. He was a member of the Guardian Features Department for five years, and subsequently contributed to the paper for some years. For three years he was News Editor of Nature, and for a similar period Deputy Features Editor of The Telegraph Magazine. He has written for The Sunday Times, New Scientist, Scientific American, Radio Times and Reader's Digest. He moved to North America where he edited photographic arts titles, before returning to Europe, and particularly the Netherlands where he learned Dutch.
Mark Thwaite: What gave you the idea for Moths?
Karl Manders: Visiting the Site of a second world war concentration camp in Holland, where Dutch Jews were held before being sent east, I wondered what the people left behind believed their fate to be, and if they ever considered sending somebody to find out what happened to the deportees. My story began as the imagining of such a mission.
MT: You've been a journalist for many years, what was it made you finally get down to the hard work of writing a novel?
KM: Moths is the sixth novel I have written; it just happens to be the first one accepted for publication. Journalism, incidentally, is very hard work.
MT: How long did it take you to write Moths?
KM: Four months to write, and another month to revise.
MT: Jazz plays an important part in your book -- does it play a part in your life too?
KM: Having passed through a jazz nerd phase which began when I was fifteen, I now enjoy the music in a more laid-back way. But I still count myself a fan, and jazz means a lot to me.
MT: How do you write? Longhand or directly onto a computer, straight off or with lots and lots of editing?
KM: The development of the word-processing computer was the greatest technical advance made by man since shoes. I take care to write what I mean when I sit at the computer, but it is an inexpressible luxury to be able to revise and revise again, without having to type out a whole page. That’s what I do.
MT: What were the principle challenges of writing Moths and how did you overcome them?
KM: When I wrote Moths I was living in a woodland cottage in the eastern Netherlands, with no access to research facilities. I simply forged ahead with the information I held in my head, and hoped for the best. Only after the book was finished was I able to do some fact checking and correction.
MT: What do you do when you are not writing?
KM: I do what most other people do – I eat, sleep, read, go to the shops and ride my bike.
MT: Did you have an idea in your mind of your "ideal" reader? Did you write specifically for them?
KM: As a journalist I always have a publication’s typical reader in mind, and write in terms of what he or she will be comfortable with. As a fiction writer I can be more self-indulgent: I speak in my own voice, and trust that the story I tell will find a sympathetic readership.
MT: What are you working on now?
KM: I have completed two more novels since writing Moths, and I am currently working on a collection of short stories.
MT: Who is your favourite writer? What is/are your favourite book(s)?
KM: Anton Chekhov. My favourite books would include his collected stories, Nabokov’s Pale Fire, the Collected Stories of Katherine Mansfield, The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth, J. M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians, The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hasek, Truman Capote’s Other Voices, Other Rooms... That’s the beginning of the list.
MT: Do you have any tips for the aspiring writer!?
KM: Write every day. The hugely successful American author Pearl Buck (before your time my dear) wrote a page a day. That way, she said she could be sure of having at least three hundred and sixty-five pages (a substantial novel) to sell every year. When I’m writing a novel, I give myself an easily attainable daily target of seven hund
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 13, 2021
Um livro que já não está à venda. Duas histórias que se convergem, que divergem e que, de novo, se convergem.
Cornelius, um homem que a pé testemunha os campos de concentração, que os descreve e relata, e acaba, apanhado, acusado e castigado, num campo soviético de trabalho forçado – um Gulag.
"Cornelius apercebeu-se de que a silenciosa congregação compreendia os destituídos de vontade de falar ou de se mover, de energia e de vida, e os que tomavam banhos de sol. Observou durante meia hora e nada se alterou. Era o seu testemunho: que as pessoas suspensas ao ponto da extinção podem ainda saborear a sensação do sol na pele e do vento suave de um bosque primaveril."
Dolboy, filho de Cornelius, percorre florestas a correr, e encontra um castelo, casa de borboletas noturnas. Dolboy, um corredor que se apaixona pela caseira desse castelo, cuidadora dessas mariposas.
“Dolboy punha a voar o seu planador no ar matinal enquanto mentalmente fazia o tempo andar para trás. Ela repousava ao seu lado no pavilhão de Verão, folheando as páginas de um livro. Todas elas figuravam nele: as mariposas-lua, as traças-do-bejoim, as borboletas-imperador e as esfinges. Estendia a mão para tocar nas suas asas coloridas (…)”
Dolboy não sabia porque corria, se para fugir, se para chegar à meta. No final do livro que já não está à venda, Dolboy descobre porque corre e qual o caminho a percorrer.
Cornelius, um homem que a pé testemunha os campos de concentração, que os descreve e relata, e acaba, apanhado, acusado e castigado, num campo soviético de trabalho forçado – um Gulag.
"Cornelius apercebeu-se de que a silenciosa congregação compreendia os destituídos de vontade de falar ou de se mover, de energia e de vida, e os que tomavam banhos de sol. Observou durante meia hora e nada se alterou. Era o seu testemunho: que as pessoas suspensas ao ponto da extinção podem ainda saborear a sensação do sol na pele e do vento suave de um bosque primaveril."
Dolboy, filho de Cornelius, percorre florestas a correr, e encontra um castelo, casa de borboletas noturnas. Dolboy, um corredor que se apaixona pela caseira desse castelo, cuidadora dessas mariposas.
“Dolboy punha a voar o seu planador no ar matinal enquanto mentalmente fazia o tempo andar para trás. Ela repousava ao seu lado no pavilhão de Verão, folheando as páginas de um livro. Todas elas figuravam nele: as mariposas-lua, as traças-do-bejoim, as borboletas-imperador e as esfinges. Estendia a mão para tocar nas suas asas coloridas (…)”
Dolboy não sabia porque corria, se para fugir, se para chegar à meta. No final do livro que já não está à venda, Dolboy descobre porque corre e qual o caminho a percorrer.
March 14, 2013
Didn't really like the book. Some good parts where life in the Siberian penal colony is described, but on the whole the book lacks a certain depth. The characters are rather flat, and the setting is rather sterile and free from any emotion. Story has definitely potential, but could have been written a lot better.
October 7, 2024
A very unusual book, I enjoyed learning about that time and place, really interesting. I did feel it left things somewhat unresolved but I guess there was never going to be a happy ending to live lived in that era.
May 22, 2012
Dolboy, an athletic prodigy, grows up in post-WW2 Netherlands, while his father Cornelius serves a ten year sentence for "spying" in a Soviet prison camp. The book juxtaposes the story of Dolboy and his rise to fame with the horrendous conditions imposed by the Soviet Gulag. The two meet only at the end. Though I'm not sure the coming-of-age story really blends that well with a tale of atrocity in Soviet Russia, I enjoyed the attempt. Other reviewers have commented on the author's gorgeous use of language, and I am inclined to agree.
It turns out prisoners in the Gulag tended to die or become permanently disabled from a horrible combination of malnourishment, over-exertion, cold, and exposure to toxic chemicals. Cornelius is first sent to work from dawn until dusk in the forest, cutting trees by hand. He receives only a thin gruel for a meal, drinks polluted water, and sleeps in a shallow hole in the freezing Siberian winter. Once worn out by the hard labour, he is moved to the paint factory, where he is exposed to pigments made out of lead, zinc, chromium, and other toxic metals that clog his lungs. He somehow survives for the ten years of his sentence, but doesn't live for long thereafter.
It turns out prisoners in the Gulag tended to die or become permanently disabled from a horrible combination of malnourishment, over-exertion, cold, and exposure to toxic chemicals. Cornelius is first sent to work from dawn until dusk in the forest, cutting trees by hand. He receives only a thin gruel for a meal, drinks polluted water, and sleeps in a shallow hole in the freezing Siberian winter. Once worn out by the hard labour, he is moved to the paint factory, where he is exposed to pigments made out of lead, zinc, chromium, and other toxic metals that clog his lungs. He somehow survives for the ten years of his sentence, but doesn't live for long thereafter.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 27, 2013
2013 Holiday Read #5
Well, after two memoirs, a comedy bonbon and a short story, my declaration of "no novels 'til exams" is well and truly scuppered, thanks to the holiday house's well-stocked and eclectic bookshelf. This was worth it though.
Yes! That's it! Spot on. That's why I loved this book, as much because of when I read it as what it's actually like. The beauty of the words matched the beauty of our holiday destination. Our house even had a summerhouse like the epicentre of Dolboy's discoveries and awakenings. The early part of the book had a lyricism that gave it the feel of poetry (and I usually despise poetry!), or a fable, that made me realise that, though my pleasure in music hasn't returned since my recent bout of depression, my love of books (as opposed to merely consuming them) is back. And it was worth surrendering study time to discover that.
The book is also very sexual, not in a clichéd and tawdry way, but in all its raw, carnal, sensual glory. Which made me realise what else I've been missing...
Well, after two memoirs, a comedy bonbon and a short story, my declaration of "no novels 'til exams" is well and truly scuppered, thanks to the holiday house's well-stocked and eclectic bookshelf. This was worth it though.
He had begun to see that the beauty of natural things, of woods and fields, and moths, was echoed in a realm that man had made, of words and images and music.
Yes! That's it! Spot on. That's why I loved this book, as much because of when I read it as what it's actually like. The beauty of the words matched the beauty of our holiday destination. Our house even had a summerhouse like the epicentre of Dolboy's discoveries and awakenings. The early part of the book had a lyricism that gave it the feel of poetry (and I usually despise poetry!), or a fable, that made me realise that, though my pleasure in music hasn't returned since my recent bout of depression, my love of books (as opposed to merely consuming them) is back. And it was worth surrendering study time to discover that.
The book is also very sexual, not in a clichéd and tawdry way, but in all its raw, carnal, sensual glory. Which made me realise what else I've been missing...
January 22, 2011
Imaginative and very moving. Tells parallel stories of a father and a son separated by war. Their paths eventually converge in a beautifully written denouement. A pleasure to read and quite unusual.
February 19, 2014
O autor escreve com beleza e poesia sobre cenários e vivências onde a condição humana é reduzida à sua expressão mais básica e dolorosa; este livro foi sem dúvida uma revelação para mim, completamente inesperado !
April 30, 2017
There were two stories in this book - one about a Dutch businessman who ends up in a Soviet gulag after world war II and the other about his son who becomes a famous runner. Wasn't too concerned about the fate of any of the characters however it was an enjoyable read.
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February 8, 2008UK: Alison Samuel
agent: Ben Mason / Sheil Land Associates
agent: Ben Mason / Sheil Land Associates
April 16, 2008
A wonderful novel - poetic, moving, brushed with a tinge of magic realism. Another world - and one most definitely worth exploring.
December 4, 2008
A mainly sorrowful tale with good descriptions and well formed characters, kept me interested right up to the sad ending.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews