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Borders
The Ardennes: lush borderlands spanning four nations—France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg. It was key to Hitler's most audacious campaign, and witnessed the defeat of his final offensive.
Robert, native to these parts, never knew his father, an American GI captured during the Battle of the Bulge. He turns for guidance to Markus Hebel, a Belgian who served as a radio operator with the Wehrmacht in Russia, and has been pretending to be blind ever since. Only to Robert can he reveal his secret—and his story.
It is the story of a man he never met, but whose voice he will never forget, whose gallant panzer-thrust across the frozen steppe almost saved the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad. And of Markus's son, trapped in the city, whose fanatical loyalty to Hitler seals his fate.
It is a story of impossible choices in a theatre of total war, where familial love, national identity, even military genius, count for nothing in the face of war's own all-consuming appetites.
Robert, native to these parts, never knew his father, an American GI captured during the Battle of the Bulge. He turns for guidance to Markus Hebel, a Belgian who served as a radio operator with the Wehrmacht in Russia, and has been pretending to be blind ever since. Only to Robert can he reveal his secret—and his story.
It is the story of a man he never met, but whose voice he will never forget, whose gallant panzer-thrust across the frozen steppe almost saved the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad. And of Markus's son, trapped in the city, whose fanatical loyalty to Hitler seals his fate.
It is a story of impossible choices in a theatre of total war, where familial love, national identity, even military genius, count for nothing in the face of war's own all-consuming appetites.
281 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1999
11 people are currently reading
456 people want to read
About the author
Roy Jacobsen
45 books383 followersRoy Jacobsen was a Norwegian novelist and short-story writer. Born in Oslo, he made his publishing début in 1982 with the short-story collection Fangeliv (Prison Life). He was winner of the prestigious Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
August 4, 2018
It was interesting to read of the inhabitants of the Ardennes region and their experiences of WWII; especially of the men who were conscripted into the German Army as new-Germans. The book tells of a small number of characters and their experiences during and after the War.
I found it an uneven book - the first story of a piano-playing GI who forms a relationship with his nurse had elements of The World According to Garp. Then there was a large part of the book that covers the fate of the trapped Sixth Army at Stalingrad; this part was more non-fiction than a novel. And the last chapter was on a bridge over the River Orly and questions what are borders anyway for the people who live on them.
I found it an uneven book - the first story of a piano-playing GI who forms a relationship with his nurse had elements of The World According to Garp. Then there was a large part of the book that covers the fate of the trapped Sixth Army at Stalingrad; this part was more non-fiction than a novel. And the last chapter was on a bridge over the River Orly and questions what are borders anyway for the people who live on them.
January 10, 2019
Jacobsen was at his best in The Unseen in his descriptions of rural scenes and the characters he has inhabiting them. It is similar here, though this book has a very different construction. In effect, it is short stories within a novella. The novella, set in the Ardennes as the Second World War finishes, is a great read. It centres around the Luxembourg - Belgium border and is the story of a hastily constructed footbridge over the River Our. Having set the scene, Jacobsen then goes off on several tangents to tell the stories of the war years of three of his characters. These stories are not as strong, which comes as a surprise, as you would expect an author so accomplished in writing about quiet rural village life to be as good when writing about war. Included in these are the stories of Markus, once a Wehrmacht radio operator who has, since being wounded in the war, faked blindness, lost his estranged son, a young man devoted to Hitler, in the Battle of Stalingrad. And Léon, the son of a Luxembourger farmer, is conscripted into the German army, his service bringing him to attack his own country.
But Jacobsen’s war writing lacks an edge, it reads like a factual account, and is not easy to follow. The bookends of the ‘novella’ that chiefly concerns his protagonist Robert’s adolescent years, and the influence of the war on him, makes the book worth reading though.
But Jacobsen’s war writing lacks an edge, it reads like a factual account, and is not easy to follow. The bookends of the ‘novella’ that chiefly concerns his protagonist Robert’s adolescent years, and the influence of the war on him, makes the book worth reading though.
August 5, 2017
I finished this a couple of weeks back, but have ruminated on it before writing the review. It's a difficult novel to categorise, blending as it does history and imagination. Initially, we find ourselves deep into the dense forests of the Ardennes, where the river Our cuts through Germany and Luxembourg. This geographical border features right throughout the book, even though the second half sees us deep into Russia with the invading German forces trying to relieve the encircled Sixth Army in Stalingrad.
Okay, what's it all about then? Memory, mainly. “Memory can play tricks on anybody", says the author. The past can be a question or an argument: “history stopped for a moment, it was resting... we have our own small choices to make within the weightier ones that history makes for us.”
I really, really liked it.
Okay, what's it all about then? Memory, mainly. “Memory can play tricks on anybody", says the author. The past can be a question or an argument: “history stopped for a moment, it was resting... we have our own small choices to make within the weightier ones that history makes for us.”
I really, really liked it.
November 4, 2021
De vier sterren hebben eigenlijk te maken met het feit dat ik het boek niet zo goed kan beoordelen. Ik ben begonnen in de Engelse vertaling van de Noorse auteur en vond het een slechte vertaling. Overgeschakeld naar de Nederlandse vertaling, en dat is een werkelijk lamentabele en deplorabele vertaling: grammaticale fouten, spelfouten, slechte syntaxis. Gewoon verschrikkelijk. En dat vergalde mijn leesplezier, wat dan weer verhinderde dat ik het objectief kon beoordelen. Maar gezien de kwaliteit van Jacobsens vroegere romans ...
Wel vreemd dat een Noors auteur zich zo intensief met de grensstreek België, Luxemburg en Duitsland heeft beziggehouden.
Wel vreemd dat een Noors auteur zich zo intensief met de grensstreek België, Luxemburg en Duitsland heeft beziggehouden.
November 4, 2017
Borders starts with a small story of a miller wanting to build a foot bridge over the river Our to shorten his commute to his mill. Without the bridge, the journey both ways is 2 hours, with it it is significantly less (he could wade through the water in the summer but this option isn't available in the winter). The planned bridge becomes a bureaucratic nightmare because of the symbol that the river Our represents, that is the Our is a border between Luxembourg and Prussia (this was 1890s) so his request to the Prussian authorities gets forwarded to the Luxembourg authorities at the time and a mess ensues. The miller wanted to pay for the bridge and build it himself, he just asked for permission to do so.
I found this be an intriguing subject, rich in historical nuance having been the duchy/grand duchy divided to land to France in 1659, Prussia in 1815 and the new country of Belgium in 1839.
And that was before I got into the bulk of the novel., this was in the short prologueesque of 5 pages.
Ok the story of the novel centres around a couple of main characters, there is the Belgian radio operator, Markus, pretending to be blind since Stalingrad (it did let him see out the rest of the war with his Luxembourg wife. Can't fault him for that), there is also a Luxembourger, Leon, who was also on the German side but was in the Battle of the Bulge and Ardennes fighting and the third was a boy conceived to a US GI to his mother who was a nurse in a military hospital for the allies. The 2 characters who served in WWII for the Nazis, this to me was something I hadn't really came across (I remember when reading The Empire of the Sun and The Garden of Evening Mists thinking a role if recruiting soldiers from occupied countries of yours was to act as guards in prisoner camps. This was confirmed in The Narrow Road to the Deep North) but having them serve as front line and important positions in the army was something I had been unaware. Another thing I found interesting about the novel. The son of Markus, Peter is also serving in the German army in Hitler's Sixth Army at Stalingrad under General Paulus.
The boy and the supposedly blind Markus are friends, the radio operator representing a father figure for the boy without a father.
The author Jacobsen has done this before with his novels, with The Burnt Out Town of Miracles, this was set during WWII also as the Russians were invading Finland in the Winter War, he has looked at parts of it that I think have been in collective amnesia of people at the time.
The problem with this novel is there is a lot of information I learned reading from it which lead to a somewhat distracted read. The first section I thought lagged a bit but when it got back to the War and it really gets going into a great read I thought.
The concept of national identity is one greatly explored in this novel in the war, there is one scene where Leon is contemplating the morality of the Nazi assault on his home town of Clervaux which to him seemed wrong.
There is also a wonder quote from the priest (a German priest stationed in Luxembourg and who had served as chaplain to unit in Italy on the battle of Montecassino) in the novel "I don't mind telling the truth, as long as nobody hears"
I enjoyed this and I did enjoy the other information that I came across reading it
I found this be an intriguing subject, rich in historical nuance having been the duchy/grand duchy divided to land to France in 1659, Prussia in 1815 and the new country of Belgium in 1839.
And that was before I got into the bulk of the novel., this was in the short prologueesque of 5 pages.
Ok the story of the novel centres around a couple of main characters, there is the Belgian radio operator, Markus, pretending to be blind since Stalingrad (it did let him see out the rest of the war with his Luxembourg wife. Can't fault him for that), there is also a Luxembourger, Leon, who was also on the German side but was in the Battle of the Bulge and Ardennes fighting and the third was a boy conceived to a US GI to his mother who was a nurse in a military hospital for the allies. The 2 characters who served in WWII for the Nazis, this to me was something I hadn't really came across (I remember when reading The Empire of the Sun and The Garden of Evening Mists thinking a role if recruiting soldiers from occupied countries of yours was to act as guards in prisoner camps. This was confirmed in The Narrow Road to the Deep North) but having them serve as front line and important positions in the army was something I had been unaware. Another thing I found interesting about the novel. The son of Markus, Peter is also serving in the German army in Hitler's Sixth Army at Stalingrad under General Paulus.
The boy and the supposedly blind Markus are friends, the radio operator representing a father figure for the boy without a father.
The author Jacobsen has done this before with his novels, with The Burnt Out Town of Miracles, this was set during WWII also as the Russians were invading Finland in the Winter War, he has looked at parts of it that I think have been in collective amnesia of people at the time.
The problem with this novel is there is a lot of information I learned reading from it which lead to a somewhat distracted read. The first section I thought lagged a bit but when it got back to the War and it really gets going into a great read I thought.
The concept of national identity is one greatly explored in this novel in the war, there is one scene where Leon is contemplating the morality of the Nazi assault on his home town of Clervaux which to him seemed wrong.
There is also a wonder quote from the priest (a German priest stationed in Luxembourg and who had served as chaplain to unit in Italy on the battle of Montecassino) in the novel "I don't mind telling the truth, as long as nobody hears"
I enjoyed this and I did enjoy the other information that I came across reading it
October 22, 2021
I can say that I really enjoyed Borders, but I can't say I was completely satisfied. Perhaps it didn't quite live up to my expectations for it, but what did I expect, actually? I was completely unfamiliar with the author, who it turns out is one of the best-known and most prolific writers in Norway. I was drawn instead to the concept of borderlands, and to the specific setting of this book, about which I was also fairly ignorant. The Ardennes, of course--who hasn't heard of this dark, dense forest land of Northern Europe? -- suffered multiple invasions during WWII: First in 1940 when overrun by the Germans in their invasion of France, and then in 1944. the Battle of the Bulge. Men of the Ardennes, particularly Luxembourgers, suffered induction into the German army, and later found themselves defending their land against would-be Allied liberators. The land is as much a character here as the people. There are big differences, though and many.
The people of this borderland have all been affected-- one might say damaged -- by WWII, and no doubt the Ardennes suffered as well. (One of the characters works, in the post-war years, with a metal detector to find shell fragments in timber being worked by loggers and sawmills.) But Nature has the ability to outlive its residents, at least in this case. The forest continues, whereas the people struggle with their wartime experiences, they age, they die. New generations arise who don't understand what their parents have gone through; new governments evolve to make new rules and govern a changed people, but the trees still stand mute and the little river winds through the valleys.
Writing this, I recognize that I got much enjoyment and insight from the book, but it wasn't at all what I expected. I guess I expected a more straightforward point of view, instead of this rambling, almost stream-of-consciousness narrative with its occasional lighthearted philosophical comments. I expected a story based on events in the Ardennes, and there's that -- but I didn't expect a major part of the book to focus on the siege of Stalingrad. I expected a more traditional novel of plot and conflicts, not the time-hopping consideration of characters and their war-altered states.
I wasn't disappointed, though. The book may have taken me by surprise, but I emerged as though from an unscheduled border incident, exhilarated and thoughtful.
The people of this borderland have all been affected-- one might say damaged -- by WWII, and no doubt the Ardennes suffered as well. (One of the characters works, in the post-war years, with a metal detector to find shell fragments in timber being worked by loggers and sawmills.) But Nature has the ability to outlive its residents, at least in this case. The forest continues, whereas the people struggle with their wartime experiences, they age, they die. New generations arise who don't understand what their parents have gone through; new governments evolve to make new rules and govern a changed people, but the trees still stand mute and the little river winds through the valleys.
Writing this, I recognize that I got much enjoyment and insight from the book, but it wasn't at all what I expected. I guess I expected a more straightforward point of view, instead of this rambling, almost stream-of-consciousness narrative with its occasional lighthearted philosophical comments. I expected a story based on events in the Ardennes, and there's that -- but I didn't expect a major part of the book to focus on the siege of Stalingrad. I expected a more traditional novel of plot and conflicts, not the time-hopping consideration of characters and their war-altered states.
I wasn't disappointed, though. The book may have taken me by surprise, but I emerged as though from an unscheduled border incident, exhilarated and thoughtful.
July 5, 2018
Læst på dansk. Syntes virkelig godt om første halvdel af bogen, som foregår i grænselandet omkring Belgien. Men sidste halvdel, som foregår på Østfronten, er dræbende langsommelig, hård at komme igennem. (Måske er bevidst greb fra forfatteren for at illustrere krigens grusomhed?) Kunne godt være en bog, der skal læses igen!
November 23, 2021
Dit boek krijg ik niet doorgeworsteld. een mooi, voor mij nieuw perspectief op de 2e wereldoorlog, maar de verhaallijnen krijg ik niet verbonden. Ook zijn er wat mij betreft veel te veel personages die ik op basis van een enkele vermelding dien te kennen blijkbaar.
Gestopt met lezen.
Gestopt met lezen.
November 19, 2017
The book was very good, but the part that didn't hold an interest for me were the descriptions of troop movements. However, if you're interested in that, then you'd enjoy the book more than I did.
February 21, 2022
Det var lite för mycket om Stalingrad för att jag ska kunna sätta ett högre betyg. Det var inte det jag förväntade mig när jag lånade boken. Men resten var helt OK.
June 16, 2024
3.5. Wonderful writing—but to this reader, a prolonged interlude of tracking troop movements amounted to an enervating blur—which may in fact have been the point.
April 8, 2025
De psychologie in deze historische roman maakt het indrukwekkend.
November 1, 2016
This is an interesting story of the lives of some of the residents of the Ardennes region of Europe. This heavily wooded, hilly terrain featured significantly in the latter days of World War II, when Hitler chose to launch a desperate counterattack against the Allies through this weakly manned sector of the Western Front. The area also figured importantly through the ages of European history and the author leads us through some of this history. The major focus is on the characters however. The author seems to employ a stream of consciousness, train of thought, style of writing that wanders through the lives of his characters sometimes leaving the reader behind. One of the main characters is Robert, who is a product of the chance meeting during the war of his mother and an American G. I. The only thing his mother can or perhaps is willing to tell him about his father is that he had been a jazz musician prior to his stint in the U.S. Army. He had been trapped behind the lines by the surprise advance of the German troops through the Ardennes. He soon left the welcoming arm’s of his paramour and supposedly returned to his unit as soon as the danger had passed. As an adult, Robert has grown up befriended to a supposedly blind veteran of the German Wehrmacht, Markus Hebel. Marcus of German descent, was a resident of the Ardennes, who was conscripted into the German Army when the Ardennes were overrun early in the war. Unlike his son, who was enamered of Hitler and his Third Reich, Marcus had no desire to fight for the Germans. Marcus relates to Robert how his life was changed serving for the Germans on the Eastern front. His son was trapped by the Russian army, along with 250,000 other German troops in Stalingrad. Marcus was forced through his position in the communication corps to hear and chronicle the desperate and fruitless struggle of the trapped troops including his son. Marcus was changed forever by this trauma. The narrative of the story wanders occasionally forward and back in time and place sometimes making it difficult to keep up. The overall theme and message of the book is very heartwarming on a personal level, even though the story deals with events and some people who would otherwise be considered unsympathetic. The story is ultimately about how people are defined by the borders they set for their lives. The lines they will or will not cross. The paths they will or will not take. Book provided for review by Amazon Vine.
June 1, 2017
Norwegian writer Roy Jacobsen's novel, "Borders", was both difficult to read and to review.Evidently, it was originally published by Jacobsen in the late 1990's, but only recently translated from Norwegian to English and is to be issued here in October. "Borders" is a densely written (or translated) story which ranges in time from WW2 to the 1990's. It is set in Luxembourg (and surrounding countries), but mostly it is set in Stalingrad, in 1942 and 1943. Jacobsen's writing about the Battle for Stalingrad, specifically of the German Army that was caught in the "cauldron" - inner Stalingrad - and were surrounded by Soviet troops. The army, led by German general Paulus, was not allowed to surrender to the Russians and when they finally fell, over 200,000 German troops were lost. Jacobsen's main character, a Luxembourger named Markus Hebel, was with the German troops outside Stalingrad who were hoping to rescue Paulus's troops. Everyone was waiting around for Hitler's decision, which merely doomed hundreds of thousands of troops, when it finally came.
Any reader who'd like to appreciate "Borders" should have a pretty good knowledge of both Stalingrad and of the Ardennes area of Luxembourg and Belgium. Or, they should have ready access to Wikipedia. Roy Jacobsen flips his plot from time to time and from place to place and from character to character. But, somehow, it's not as confusing as it might be. I actually enjoyed the book, but it's not one I can honestly recommend. It's just too quirky for the normal reader. The characters are very interesting and well-drawn, but the writing is too dense to be ordinarily appreciated. Maybe I'm quirky enough...
Any reader who'd like to appreciate "Borders" should have a pretty good knowledge of both Stalingrad and of the Ardennes area of Luxembourg and Belgium. Or, they should have ready access to Wikipedia. Roy Jacobsen flips his plot from time to time and from place to place and from character to character. But, somehow, it's not as confusing as it might be. I actually enjoyed the book, but it's not one I can honestly recommend. It's just too quirky for the normal reader. The characters are very interesting and well-drawn, but the writing is too dense to be ordinarily appreciated. Maybe I'm quirky enough...
July 30, 2011
En roman om grenser og om folket som bor på begge sider av dem. Om identitet og om tilhørighet. Boka er blant annet en beskrivelse av hendelser under andre verdenskrig, men i motsetning til hva vi er vant til, er denne romanen fortalt av "fienden", nærmere bestemt av en tvangsvervet luxemburger i en av Hitlers armeer. Man får innblikk i de mange tragedier som kunne ramme en vanlig familie og spesielt får man innblikk i tragedien kjent som slaget om Stalingrad. Dette er ingen lettlest bok, men den er en bok som er verd å lese.
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August 3, 2011Roy Jacobsen imponerer meg, det ligger adskillig research bak denne boka. Handlingen foregår i Luxembourg før, under og etter siste verdenskrig. Vi er med i Ardennerslaget, men fremfor alt kampene om Stalingrad. Vi møter folk som kjemper på mange sider av grensene i det kompliserte området, mest av alt kjemper de kanskje med seg selv. Suveren bok!
November 15, 2016
I found "Border" to be an interesting and intriguing book that I have to say I really enjoyed. I am always looking to read about World War II and this one did not let me down. I will say that I wish the print was a little larger. I won this great book on GoodReads and like I do with most my wins I will be paying it forward by giving my win either to a friend or library to enjoy.
December 29, 2019
Read it in the original norwegian.
Unlikable charachters, faltering storylines and most of all : boring, sorry !
Unlikable charachters, faltering storylines and most of all : boring, sorry !
October 22, 2016
This is a Goodreads win review. This book is about Hitler's invasion of France and the Battle of the Bulge. I could not enjoy it too well since the print was way too small.
December 21, 2016
Here's my review, in the January 2017 issue of WORLD LITERATURE TODAY:
http://bit.ly/2hWkKtK
http://bit.ly/2hWkKtK
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February 7, 2017“Creatively blending history and imagination in his novel Borders, Jacobsen marches readers deep into the Ardennes, dense forests where a real river named Our slashes nations between two villages: Dasburg in Germany and Rodershausen in Luxembourg. One main character is a boy named Robert, product of a month shared by his mother, a Belgian nurse, and his father, an American GI pianist who vanished before Robert’s birth. Thus, Robert reveres his “blind” godfather, Markus, who actually sees a lot. As a German radio operator, though, he couldn’t save his own son with the Sixth Army in Stalingrad.” - Lanie Tankard
This book was reviewed in the January/February 2017 issue of World Literature Today magazine. Read the full review by visiting our website:
https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/...
This book was reviewed in the January/February 2017 issue of World Literature Today magazine. Read the full review by visiting our website:
https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/...
April 15, 2017
I would recommend this book primarily to WWII history buffs. It deals with a specific piece of WWII history, so I think that it is best suited for already knowledgeable readers. I found it enjoyable overall but believe it would have been a better experience if I came into it highly aware of the geographic area in which the story takes place. I enjoyed the family elements in the story and imagine many other readers will too.
*I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
*I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews