What do you think?
Rate this book
Kudenow oder An fremden Wassern weinen.
German
458 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1978
1 person is currently reading
6 people want to read
About the author
Arno Surminski
46 books5 followersArno Surminski (born 20 August 1934 in Jäglack, East Prussia) is a German writer, living in Hamburg, and a father of two.
After growing up in East Prussia, his parents were deported to ther Soviet Union, while he was expelled to Schleswig-Holstein. Having finished his school education there, he was apprenticed to a lawyer from 1950-1953.
He lived in Canada from 1957 to 1960, but then came back to Germany, where he worked for an insurance company from 1962 until 1972.
Since 1972, apart from writing, he has been working as a journalist, specialising in economy and insurance. His fame is mainly due to his novels, the principal themes of which are his recollections of a happy childhood and the fate of the deportees; he has no interest however in revenge, but only wants to preserve his childhood memories. Several of his books were used for TV productions.
Since 2001, he has been working as an ombudsman in the field of health insurance.
After growing up in East Prussia, his parents were deported to ther Soviet Union, while he was expelled to Schleswig-Holstein. Having finished his school education there, he was apprenticed to a lawyer from 1950-1953.
He lived in Canada from 1957 to 1960, but then came back to Germany, where he worked for an insurance company from 1962 until 1972.
Since 1972, apart from writing, he has been working as a journalist, specialising in economy and insurance. His fame is mainly due to his novels, the principal themes of which are his recollections of a happy childhood and the fate of the deportees; he has no interest however in revenge, but only wants to preserve his childhood memories. Several of his books were used for TV productions.
Since 2001, he has been working as an ombudsman in the field of health insurance.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 22, 2019
To my knowledge, none of Arno Surminski's novels have been translated into English. That's a great pity. Much like it took more than 20 years after WWII before the Holocaust became a part of public consciousness, the diaspora of Germans from East Prussia into West and East Germany was not much talked about outside a relatively small circle until this book was made into a television miniseries in the early 1980s. When Germans talked about their post war history, it was generally to highlight the "economic miracle" or the building of the Berlin Wall.
In Kudenow oder An fremden Wassern weinen (Kudenow, or Crying on Foreign Waters) and other novels and short stories, Surminski, himself a refugee from East Prussia who settled in Hamburg, tells the stories of East Prussians who survived the march fleeing the Russians. Here is tells the story of Kurt, a young boy who was separated from his family for a couple of years who makes his way through East Germany, over the border guarded by unsympathetic Russian soldiers to find his mother and sister. They live in a chicken shack on the grounds of a former northern German estate that has become a refuge to many who fled East Prussia, much to the consternation of the owners.
Through Kurt's eyes, we see what it was like to survive on short rations, to live in close quarters, not only with his mother and sister, but near others like him as they form a nosy, sometimes jealous, and always desperate small community. Many, like him with his father, have lost touch with fathers, husbands, brothers, and other males in their family, hoping that they are prisoners of war and not lying dead, anonymously in some distant field. Some fight off the urge to commit suicide, others can't escape it.
When the beloved oldest son of the owners of the estate returns unexpectedly, he takes Kurt under his wing and becomes a surrogate father or older brother. And when he becomes close to Kurt's sister, whose stoic, hard-working ethic represents the prototypical post-war German woman who became the foundation of the new nation, the estate's family begrudgingly accepts her, even though she does not have the pedigree of a local estate heir. Through the characters who find refuge in the estate, we see examples of what it was like to establish new lives in a foreign place, despite the fact that they are all German. And as housing is built in cities and towns throughout Germany, the population of the estate gradually goes down as some sort of normalcy finally returns.
Surminski writes with a simplicity and grace that brings history of common people to life. His novels and short stories are not about titans of history, but of the people who have to live and survive day-to-day despite decisions and events that happen around them over which they have no control. He is one of my favorite writers and this is one of his most well-known works. It's a pity that his wonderful stories are not available in more languages. He deserves a wider audience.
In Kudenow oder An fremden Wassern weinen (Kudenow, or Crying on Foreign Waters) and other novels and short stories, Surminski, himself a refugee from East Prussia who settled in Hamburg, tells the stories of East Prussians who survived the march fleeing the Russians. Here is tells the story of Kurt, a young boy who was separated from his family for a couple of years who makes his way through East Germany, over the border guarded by unsympathetic Russian soldiers to find his mother and sister. They live in a chicken shack on the grounds of a former northern German estate that has become a refuge to many who fled East Prussia, much to the consternation of the owners.
Through Kurt's eyes, we see what it was like to survive on short rations, to live in close quarters, not only with his mother and sister, but near others like him as they form a nosy, sometimes jealous, and always desperate small community. Many, like him with his father, have lost touch with fathers, husbands, brothers, and other males in their family, hoping that they are prisoners of war and not lying dead, anonymously in some distant field. Some fight off the urge to commit suicide, others can't escape it.
When the beloved oldest son of the owners of the estate returns unexpectedly, he takes Kurt under his wing and becomes a surrogate father or older brother. And when he becomes close to Kurt's sister, whose stoic, hard-working ethic represents the prototypical post-war German woman who became the foundation of the new nation, the estate's family begrudgingly accepts her, even though she does not have the pedigree of a local estate heir. Through the characters who find refuge in the estate, we see examples of what it was like to establish new lives in a foreign place, despite the fact that they are all German. And as housing is built in cities and towns throughout Germany, the population of the estate gradually goes down as some sort of normalcy finally returns.
Surminski writes with a simplicity and grace that brings history of common people to life. His novels and short stories are not about titans of history, but of the people who have to live and survive day-to-day despite decisions and events that happen around them over which they have no control. He is one of my favorite writers and this is one of his most well-known works. It's a pity that his wonderful stories are not available in more languages. He deserves a wider audience.
Displaying 1 of 1 review