Die Eisheiligen

by Helga M. Novak

297 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Helga M. Novak (pseudonym for Maria Karlsdottir) was a German-Icelandic writer.

Novak was born in Berlin. She grew up in East Germany, studied journalism and philosophy at the University of Leipzig.

She moved to Iceland in 1961, where she married and had two children before her divorce.

She traveled to Spain, France, and the U.S., before returning to East Germany. When her citizenship was revoked for writing and publishing critical texts, she moved between Iceland, Germany and Bulgaria. She was an informer ("inoffizieller Mitarbeiter") for the East German Stasi.

Novak died in 2013.

Reviews

[Viktoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

3 This book is one of the books in my life = It is so close to me + love the language + the mixture of prose, poetry, and scenes, the characters + I found myself in so many sentences + I had to cry + somehow it's almost as if I think >>everything has been said << + I don't need to think about it anymore + Here in Paris, I also picked it up from the shelf quite by chance = My cat will be called Novak, that's for sure

[Philpp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Die Zeit um den 2. WK, ungefiltert aus der Sicht eines Kindes. Kein leichter Stoff – „Wer lügt, der klaut. Und wer klaut, der tötet. Und wer tötet, wird aufgehängt - puhhh schwierige Pädagogik ...

[Ricchard Anders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sehr spannend. Für mich allemal.
Helga Novak hat den selben Jahrgangs wie meine Mutter.
Das Aufwachsen von 1935 bis zur Gründung der DDR ist extrem persönlich und sehr literarisch geschrieben.
Sie wächst bei Berlin auf und die Beschreibung der schrecklichen Zeit und das handhaben der herzlosen Eltern ist faszinierend zu lesen. Eine Erklärung für deutsches Leben, wie es noch heute immer wieder passiert.
Mustread in meinen Augen