Heinrich Eggerth: Die Papierrose [The Paper Rose]

The latest addition to my website is Heinrich Eggerth‘s Die Papierrose [The Paper Rose]. It is narrated by a man whose almost ten year old daughter has died of a brain tumour. He visits her grave almost every day and talks to her, over a period of many years. The books is his (obviously one-sided) conversations with her. We learn about how she died, the two operations she had and her cheerful, chatty nature. We also learn about how bitter he is that she had to die before her time and how he feels guilty – was the tumour caused when she fell off him, when playing, or was God punishing him for not quitting his smoking habit? He tells her of his life and the life of their family (he has a wife and another daughter, though they are barely mentioned) and imagines her growing up and having a family of her own. It is a sad book but not mawkish or overly sentimental. Apart from a few poems, none of Heggerth’s work has been translated into English or any other language.

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