{"product_id":"9780857428325","title":"What Darkness Was","description":"Author: Parei Inka\u003cbr\u003eISBN: 9780857428325\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Gazebo Books\u003cbr\u003eYear first published: 01 Jul 2023\u003cbr\u003ePages: 142\u003cbr\u003eFormat: Paperback \/ softback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGermany, 1977. Close to death, an old man collapses and struggles to his bed. The sounds of the endless night unsettle him, triggering images, questions and memories. In \u003ci\u003eWhat Darkness Was\u003c\/i\u003e, Inka Parei allows the reader to inhabit a singular German mind. Precise and observant-but uncomprehending and on the brink of hysteria-the old man wracks his brain as the questions flow like water: Why did he inherit the building he now lives in? Why did he leave the city that was his home for so long? Is he even here voluntarily? And who was that suspicious stranger on the stairs? Lying in bed, the old man is aware that these questions may be the last puzzles he ever solves.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCombining tight prose with a compulsive delight in detail, \u003ci\u003eWhat Darkness Was\u003c\/i\u003e presents a dynamic portrait of the West German soul from World War II through the German Autumn of 1977-a series of killings, bombings and robberies by the Baader-Meinhof Gang and other left-wing protest groups.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Of all the Holocaust novel genres, the most interesting is often the one that doesn't describe clearly defined horrors . . . Inka Parei's\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhat Darkness Was\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e takes this forward, acknowledging that history has been made in Germany since the Holocaust, and that it too can be poorly understood and put into a larger continuum of culture, and lost or denied culture. Set in late 1977 in West Germany and within the addled, lost consciousness of an old man,\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhat Darkness Was\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e isn't a novel of direct connections, of completeness, of action and reaction, or of explanations for the reader, but instead of gestures toward, of using abstraction, atmosphere to set the reader up to find how it comes together, and what it has to offer from the past and for the future.'\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e- Three Percent\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e'What Darkness Was\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e gives shape, sound and presence to a world deprived of dimension and leaking its memory.' - Ron Slate,\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eOn the Seawall\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ships in 10 to 15 days","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47845875351710,"sku":"ADS-9780857428325","price":24.78,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0400\/9043\/5742\/files\/9780857428325.jpg?v=1781223643","url":"https:\/\/classicbargains.com.au\/products\/9780857428325","provider":"Classic Bargains Australia","version":"1.0","type":"link"}