Matthias Berg

by Yvette Z'Graggen

Die Reise der Genfer Studentin Marie nach Berlin im Juni 1994 ist eine Reise in die Vergangenheit: Die junge Frau will ihren deutschen Grossvater - Matthias Berg - treffen, den sie nie gesehen hat, dessen Kriegsschicksal aber das Leben ihrer Mutter und Grossmutter zerstörte. >Ein feinfühliges Porträt von drei Frauen aus drei Generationen. Und was diesen Roman besonders auszeichnet: Z'Graggen berichtet, ohne zu richten.< (Tages-Anzeiger, Zürich)

Genres: School, Read For School, Fiction

109 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Elisa Dietrich · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did I read this book in a day because I have an exam tomorrow? Yes
Do I write this review knowing I should be learning? Yes
Will I write this review in french bc it's a french book and I usually write the review in the language the book was? Definitely not. :)

Okay, now to the book
Well, it was quite boring. I can't say I didn't find it emotional bc it was sad. It really was. But well it is not enough to just be sad.

So this book gets 2 Stars, maybe 2,5 idk haha

What annoys me the most is that the title of this book is Matthias Berg, a man's name but in the book there are 4 woman that are so important for the story and they have so much personality while MB is just an old man...yk what I mean he's just not as interesting as Beate, Eva, Lena and I mean even Marie is more interesting.
I like Bertrand tough

There really would be potential in this story but it's just written so poorly, i'm so sorry
It's definitely also bc of the french but not only...

[Gaëtan Gaillard · Rating 4 out of 5]

La narration peut sembler déroutante au début mais le roman se lit bien. C'est une histoire dure et frustrante mais intéressante sur trois générations de femmes touchées par les guerres mondiales et leurs conséquences. Marie, le personnage principal, cherche son grand-père Matthias Berg qu'elle n'a jamais connu. Même s'il constitue l'objet de la quête de Marie, ce sont bien elle-même et sa mère les véritables héroïnes de ce roman lu d'une traite.

[bella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Je l'ai lu en français, et je l'ai trouvé assez facile à lire pourtant vraiment interessant. J'ai beaucoup aimé comme Z'Graggen a utilisé les mémoires pour raconter l'histoire au fur et à mesure. Ce livre a été vraiment utile pour améliorer mon français comme je suis en train de l'apprendre.

I wrote this review in French partly because I read the book in French, and partly because I am just that pretentious. Anyhow, the book was a fairly quick but emotional read. It was pretty minimalist or self-contained in that all of the action was confined basically to a park bench over the course of a few days and focused more on the development of the main character as she learns about her family.

[Raven Stäheli · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75/5 I really liked the message this book delivered and the topic it covered. However, can we talk about how much procrastinating Marie was doing? How is it possible to go over how you wanna approach your grandfather, who you never met before, sooo many times in your head without actually doing it. It annoyed me a bit because I feel like the whole story could‘ve been told in half the pages. On the contrary, I also understand the importance of showing how much overcoming it took Marie to finally talk to this stranger, which she heard so much about. I also need to mention that I liked the end and that it satisfied me enough, especially for a school book.
We read this in french class and I struggled a lot with the understanding but I feel like it got better towards the end. I‘m happy that I read it but I don‘t think that I‘ll ever read it again.

[Clara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jolie histoire de générations, de guerre et de passé, à approfondir les œuvres de l'autrice

[Carolina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bah je l’ai lu pour les cours, mais en soit il est pas mal. Il est mieux que les autres, plus intéressant.

[Salome Kaufmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

histoire triste

[Nicolas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I understand my french teacher now

[léa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Je l’ai lu en français et j’ai bien aimé mais c’était très court et il ne se passait pas grand chose.