Death in Danzig
I am reading Death in Danzig by Stefan Chwin and I am now about halfway through. It is a strange and rather wonderful book. It has some of the most evocative descriptions of place that I have ever read. The plot is somewhat subordinate to place, but it feels as if the place itself, Danzig in 1945, as the Germans flee and the city is taken over by Poles driven out of the eastern parts of Poland, is the main character. And what a character.
In one chapter, the departure from cherished material possessions is simply brilliantly described from the point of view of the objects. The elegant tureens’ envy of the simple baking trays that might come to accompany the owners as they flee the city. The dread of the impractial silver sugar bowls, which, while keeping up a brave front and continuing to serve, feel like small sarcophagi…
Death in Danzig, Stefan Chwin/ Harcourt Books, ISBN 0-15-100805-1
