Children are Civilians Too

by Heinrich Böll

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129	3	213,830	(3.95)	2
"These twenty-six stories illustrate Heinrich Boll's finely nuanced storytelling at its best. In stunning portraits of ordinary people, Boll creates a rich tapestry of the dark years in postwar Germany. There are tales of soldiers on leave, listlessly visiting bars and brothels; stories of children rendered with a simplicity that belies their emotional impact; and stark vignettes of people struggling to re-make their lives against the ruined landscape of war-devastated towns and villages. Representing Boll's youthful beginnings, this collection introduces the themes that inform his life-long literary accomplishments and the wit, intelligence, and lyricism that made Boll one of contemporary Europe's most acclaimed writers."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved… (more)

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'Children are Civilians Too' is both the name of the book by Heinrich Boll and the name of one of the short stories contained within - of which there 26 in total. These are often very short stories bordering on flash fiction - some are as short as three pages - but each one hits home, focusing on the wretchedness of life in a war-torn state, and the sadness that seems to follow every man, woman, and child when war descends upon the country. (

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soylentgreen23 | Nov 28, 2019 |

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2875639.html

I acquired this collection of short stories years ago and got around to reading it last month.

I must say they blew me away. They are mostly very short indeed - 26 stories in 185 pages, so roughly 7 pages each on average. They were published between 1947 and 1951, mostly in 1950. They cover the horror of being a German soldier in the war, and of being a German after the war; of the disintegration of civilisation and humanity, and the dreadfulness of being oneself an integral part of that. It's unflinching and unsentimental, and full of memorable images (not all of which seem to have got translated) - the shreds of wallpaper, for instance, in the paragraph above. Most of the stories are vignettes, but some have a distinct twist in the tail. I'll look out for more by Böll. (

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nwhyte | Sep 16, 2017 |

Vividly real; as a friend said, you can taste the cookies the girl is selling (

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antiquary | Aug 14, 2009 |

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Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Böll, Heinrich	—	primary author	all editions	confirmed
Vennewitz, Leila	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

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Auch Kinder sind Zivilisten (verhaal, 1950)

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Duits

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"These twenty-six stories illustrate Heinrich Boll's finely nuanced storytelling at its best. In stunning portraits of ordinary people, Boll creates a rich tapestry of the dark years in postwar Germany. There are tales of soldiers on leave, listlessly visiting bars and brothels; stories of children rendered with a simplicity that belies their emotional impact; and stark vignettes of people struggling to re-make their lives against the ruined landscape of war-devastated towns and villages. Representing Boll's youthful beginnings, this collection introduces the themes that inform his life-long literary accomplishments and the wit, intelligence, and lyricism that made Boll one of contemporary Europe's most acclaimed writers."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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The original title of this stuffing collection of twenty-six stories was 1947-1951.

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