Herta Müller
Author of The Land of Green Plums
About the Author
Born in Romania in 1953, Herta Müller lost her job as a teacher and suffered repeated threats after refusing to cooperate with Ceausescu's Secret Police. She succeeded in emigrating in 1987 and now lives in Berlin. The recipient of the European Literature Prize, she has also won the International show more IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for her previous novel, The Land of Green Plums. Müller was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2009. (Publisher Provided) Herta Müller was born in Nitzkydorf, Romania on August 17, 1953 to German parents. She studied German studies and Romanian literature at Timisoara University. While there, she became part of the Aktionsgruppe Banat, a group of idealistic Romanian-German writers seeking freedom of expression under the Ceaucescu dictatorship. After graduation, she worked as a translator in a machine factory, but was fired for refusing to cooperate with the secret police. Her first short story collection, Niederungen, was published in 1982 in a censored form. She immigrated to West Germany in 1987. She is a novelist, poet and essayist whose works depict the harsh conditions of life in Communist Romania under the repressive Nicolae Ceausescu regime. Her works include Herztier or The Land of Green Plums; The Appointment; Der Fuchs War Damals Schon der Jäger or The Passport; and Atemschaukel or Everything I Possess I Carry with Me. She has won numerous awards including the Marieluise-Fleißer Prize in 1990, the Kranichsteiner Literary Prize in 1991, the Kleist Prize in 1994, and the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Amrei-Marie
Series
Works by Herta Müller
Securitate er stadig aktiv 3 copies
Rumäniendeutsche Gedichte und Prosa : Herta Müller, Gerhardt Csejka, Helmuth Frauendorfer, Klaus Hensel, Johann… (1994) — Contributor — 3 copies
CDO GJE QE KAM E MBAJ ME VETE 2 copies
Le vie sottili 1 copy
الملك ينحني ليقتل 1 copy
أرجوحة النفس 1 copy
سرزمین گوجه های سبز 1 copy
Beiträge zum Kolloquium, Hans von Bülow, Leben, Wirken und Vermächtnis : Veranstaltet von der Abteilung… (1994) 1 copy
Pepita 1 copy
Til Inger 1 copy
Collagedigte 1 copy
Herta Müller : Bilder und Zeichnungen ; Museum Folkwang Essen 23. Mai bis 10. August 2003 (2003) 1 copy
חיית הלב 1 copy
Associated Works
Leben ohne Grund: Konstruktion kultureller Identität bei Werner Söllner, Rolf Bossert und Herta Müller (2003) — Associated Name — 3 copies
Presentask med fyra Nobelnoveller från Novellix : Steinbeck, Morrison m fl (2018) — Author — 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Müller, Herta
- Legal name
- Müller, Herta
- Other names
- MÜLLER, Herta
- Birthdate
- 1953-08-17
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- Romania (birth)
Germany - Birthplace
- Niţchidorf, Romania
- Places of residence
- Berlin, Germany
- Education
- Timişoara University
- Occupations
- translator
teacher
writer - Relationships
- Wagner, Richard (spouse)
- Organizations
- Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung
Aktionsgruppe Banat - Awards and honors
- Nobel Prize (Literature|2009)
Franz Werfel Human Rights Award (2009)
Kleist Prize (1994) - Short biography
- Herta Müller was born in Romania, but her family was in the German minority. She grew up speaking German and learned Romanian at school. Her father was in the Waffen SS, and her mother, at the age of 17, was deported to a Soviet labor camp in 1945 where she spent five years. Müller worked as a translator for three years, but was fired for refusing to cooperate with Ceauşescu's secret police. She worked as a teacher for a while and was a member of the Aktionsgruppe Banat, a literary society that fought for freedom of speech. Her works are fiction, but are often based on people she knew. In 1987, she and her husband, Richard Wagner, were allowed to emigrate to West Germany, where she lives today.
Members
Discussions
What happened with the CK of Herta Müller? in Ask LibraryThing (April 2012)
Reviews
The Appointment: A Novel by Herta Müller
A challenging book about Romania under Ceauşescu where suspicion and secret police are slowly driving most of the citizens mad including the narrator. Had it not been a book club selection, I would not have persevered. I am glad I finished but reluctant to start another by this Nobel-award winning author. Her imagination and prose mirror well the narrator's distraction and fear and resignment. It would be interesting to read in the original German.
I'm so glad I decided to read this book! Not only was it engaging and really informative, but also so well-written, that reading it was a real treat.
I especially liked the first part of the book, where the author wrote about her early life in Romania - by the way, after reading this book that country seems an extremely scary place I'd never want to visit. The second part, where she writes about other people, was less interesting for me and I did not enjoy it as much as the first part. I was afraid this book would be very sad and depressing - it was sad and scary and difficult to accept, but I couldn't stop reading it.
I think Herta Muller is an extremely talented author and this book was fascinating.
From my blog: https://dominikasreadingchallenge.blogspot.com/2019/03/immer-derselbe-schnee-und...… (more)
I especially liked the first part of the book, where the author wrote about her early life in Romania - by the way, after reading this book that country seems an extremely scary place I'd never want to visit. The second part, where she writes about other people, was less interesting for me and I did not enjoy it as much as the first part. I was afraid this book would be very sad and depressing - it was sad and scary and difficult to accept, but I couldn't stop reading it.
I think Herta Muller is an extremely talented author and this book was fascinating.
From my blog: https://dominikasreadingchallenge.blogspot.com/2019/03/immer-derselbe-schnee-und...… (more)
64. The Land of Green Plums by Herta Müller
translation: from German by Michael Hofmann (1996)
OPD: 1994
format: 242-page hardcover
acquired: 2013 read: Nov 15-23 time reading: 6:59, 1.7 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: Novel theme: TBR
locations: Communist Romania ~1970’s
about the author: Romanian-German novelist, poet, essayist and recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Nițchidorf in Romania in 1953.
A series of sketches of the life of college-educated political dissidents in Romania under Ceaușescu. They deal with constant harassment, abuse, economic strain and suicides.
This being Müller, it's a Swabian perspective. The Swabians are a German minority in Romania. Our main character is the daughter of an SS veteran who came back to Romania after WWII, remaining outrageously sympathetic to Hitler.
I think that hints at the swirl of dark stuff in here. It is relentlessly bleak. This 1994 novel was rejuvenated when Müller won the Nobel Prize in 2009. It is powerful, but tough going and I struggled through (but felt it!). I think there are times I would have lapped this up. But I found myself impatient and beaten down. I never got lost in it and read it mainly in 20-minute sessions, stopping in exhaustion. It will, despite or because of all that, hang around.
This is my 4th novel by Müller. I feel like each was harder to read than the last one. I think her anger at Communist Romania is most present here of all her works I've read. In an odd way, I feel that her act of expressing all that bitter anger has a cathartic element. It's powerful, but I'm not sure who I would recommend this to.
2023
https://www.librarything.com/topic/354226#8292394… (more)
translation: from German by Michael Hofmann (1996)
OPD: 1994
format: 242-page hardcover
acquired: 2013 read: Nov 15-23 time reading: 6:59, 1.7 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: Novel theme: TBR
locations: Communist Romania ~1970’s
about the author: Romanian-German novelist, poet, essayist and recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Nițchidorf in Romania in 1953.
A series of sketches of the life of college-educated political dissidents in Romania under Ceaușescu. They deal with constant harassment, abuse, economic strain and suicides.
This being Müller, it's a Swabian perspective. The Swabians are a German minority in Romania. Our main character is the daughter of an SS veteran who came back to Romania after WWII, remaining outrageously sympathetic to Hitler.
I think that hints at the swirl of dark stuff in here. It is relentlessly bleak. This 1994 novel was rejuvenated when Müller won the Nobel Prize in 2009. It is powerful, but tough going and I struggled through (but felt it!). I think there are times I would have lapped this up. But I found myself impatient and beaten down. I never got lost in it and read it mainly in 20-minute sessions, stopping in exhaustion. It will, despite or because of all that, hang around.
This is my 4th novel by Müller. I feel like each was harder to read than the last one. I think her anger at Communist Romania is most present here of all her works I've read. In an odd way, I feel that her act of expressing all that bitter anger has a cathartic element. It's powerful, but I'm not sure who I would recommend this to.
2023
https://www.librarything.com/topic/354226#8292394… (more)
Beautifully written in a fragmented style where the unspoken is as powerful as it was in this environment. I know I obsess over 2nd world lit, but I'd put this in the upper ranks of that collection.
My notes in total were: Astounding. Painful and oblique and true.
My notes in total were: Astounding. Painful and oblique and true.
1 
Kiramke | 42 other reviews | Jun 27, 2023 |
Kiramke | 42 other reviews | Jun 27, 2023 | Lists
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Statistics
- Works
- 73
- Also by
- 10
- Members
- 4,553
- Popularity
- #5,522
- Rating
- 3.6
- Reviews
- 217
- ISBNs
- 377
- Languages
- 31
- Favorited
- 10
