It’s a story as delicate, shimmering and fragile as the paper used to wrap oranges. It’s the story of Elsa, a girl who left Dresden for Bavaria with her father in the mid-1950s. Although Elsa has only spent a short amount of time in the small town, where she is teased by many for her dialect, she has already made some friends.
There’s Asampauli, with whom she travels to school; the teacher Kapuste, who assigns his students baffling riddles; and the fruit dealer who saves the exotic paper used to wrap oranges for Elsa. She had gotten the idea to collect the orange paper from Kapuste – perhaps because he suspected that she needed a place of refuge, and a bridge to help her talk about the things she had bottled up inside of her. In fact, when a new student joins the class, Elsa slowly and tentatively begins to experience a breakthrough …
Hanns Zischler’s story is a literary gem with tremendous narrative power. Through the accuracy of his observations and his focus on detail, Hanns Zischler succeeds in capturing the atmosphere of a time when trauma and loss concealed a deeper dignity and strength.
A magnificent literary debut on memory, loss and moving on.
