Death in Danzig

Spherical, wonderfully written Polish novel about Danzig in transition from a nazi occupied Prussian city to a drab communist town, following the fates of a limited number of characters. Chwin is a master of leaving out details (about some people’s pasts), while emphasizing sound, colour and shape of the environment and combining this with meticulous descriptions from the perspective of the main characters, who all live(d) in the same street.

The novel opens with a dramatic event affecting Hanemann, professor of anatomy, who is confronted with the drowned corpse of his love during a dissection class. The man walks out, never to return at the Institute where he teaches. In a way this sets the tone and timbre of the rest of the novel show more – it is about humanity, not about what role people have played in the war or the pros and cons of one dictatorship replacing another. It is about a street and its inhabitants in transition, coming out of a horrific war, settling in for a stifling dictatorship.

At the start Danzig is in the middle of the final war siege, under bombardment, with many Germans fleeing through the last ships which dock in at the harbour. Several memorable scenes describe in a day-to-day, casual manner how people seek to flee whilst being hit by planes, by artillery shells, or by collapsing buildings. The W family manages to get out on the Bernlof, a pre-war time cruise ship, but Hanemann is not so lucky, he tries but wanders back. New arrivals like the Polish family fleeing from Warsaw, seek out empty houses in the street and occupy those. Later it transpires the Bernlof was sunk with most of its passengers drowned. A girl from the Ukraine arrives in the Polish home – everything she touches shines, a kindred spirit, but housed in a tormented body. At some stage she attacks Hanemann, displaying all the signs of war-time trauma. Later, when a deaf-mute boy gate crashes at the Polish home, she learns sign language from Hanemann, developing quite an affectionate bond.

In the end it seems a state of harmony is achieved between all the flotsam of new inhabitants, but then rumours seep through that both Hanemann and the Ukrainian girl will be picked up because of suspected unpatriotic inclinations. They both have to flee, while abducting the deaf-mute boy. They leave but are never heard of again… The new regime kicks into gear and a shadow descends on the city. show less

Very good book set in Gdansk, Poland.