From the author of Floating in My Mother's Palm. Born in the small German town of Burdorf, Trudi Montag is a Zwerg--a dwarf--who yearns to stretch and grow and be like everyone else. But as she matures to become the town's librarian and unofficial historian, Trudi learns that being different is a secret that everybody shares.
Stones from the River
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Oprah Book Club® Selection, February 1997: Ursula Hegi's Stones from the River clamors for comparisons to Gunter Grass's The Tin Drum; her protagonist Trudi Montag--like the unforgettable Oskar Mazerath--is a dwarf living in Germany during the two World Wars. To its credit, Stones does not wilt from the comparison. Hegi's book has a distinctive, appealing flavor of its own. Stone's characters are off-center enough to hold your attention despite the inevitable dominance of the setting: There's Trudi's mother, who slowly goes insane living in an "earth nest" beneath the family house; Trudi's best friend Georg, whose parents dress him as the girl they always wanted; and, of course, Trudi herself, whose condition dooms her to long for an impossible normalcy. Futhermore, the reader's inevitable sympathy for Trudi, the dwarf, heightens the true grotesqueness of Nazi Germany. Stones from the River is a nightmare journey with an unforgettable guide.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
From Publishers Weekly
A dwarf woman struggles to find acceptance in her small German town in this novel spanning both world wars.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
book was very interesting - detailed a lot of unknow history and unknown facts to me - a book I would recommend to friends
By M. Alther
Format:Paperback
This book made me a fan of Ursula Heggi. What a great writer with a gift for human interest. Beginning in pre-Nazi Germany, this story ends after the war and focuses on the conception, chidlhood, adolescence, and adulthood of a female dwarf and the keeper of the pay library. She knows just about everyone in her small town, and all the drama, triumphs and tragedies in their lives are detailed along with her own. Wonderful book!
Format:Paperback
This is a stunning book...not an easy book, or a simple book, but stunning. Hegi's portrait of Trudi Montag is beautifully drawn. She is a fully realized character, with traits that we admire but with a hard edge of her own. Her perspective is that of an outsider, and as such any of us who ever felt on the outside of things can easily relate to her.
The real main character of her book is the town that she lives in. Peopled with quirky characters, the edge in this book sneaks up on you. People who seem odd but harmless as the book begins become terrifying supporters of the Nazi regime. And those who seem odd but vaguely menacing, end up showing true heroism. Nothing is ever quite what it seems.
Hegi's prose is rich and evocative. She goes for poetry over accuracy, hence her translation of kindreich as "child-rich" rather than as fertile. The equation of fertility with riches further heightens our sense of Trudi as an outsider.
I must admit that the idea that Trudi, a dwarf, could actually survive the Third Reich bothered me just a bit. I ended up accepting it as a fictional image. Truth in fiction does not always have to mirror actual truth. Sometimes poetic truth can be stronger.
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4.1 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Dreadful. Let me count the ways....
I read this book because I enjoyed some of Hegi's short stories in Hotel of the Saints. I'm wondering now if they were written by different people. Read more
Published on July 6 2004 by "cd-"
1.0 out of 5 stars
5-stars for what?!?!?!?
If you are reading all these 5-star reviews, be aware that not everyone out there found this book "superb" or "spellbinding" or any such nonesense. Read more
Published on Jun 25 2004 by T. Panek
5.0 out of 5 stars
A flowing saga, with nuggets of beauty
Stones from the River deals with a heroine who is everything a heroine is not. She is a small sized person, a 'dwarf' as it were, not remarkably pretty and not truly bestowed with... Read more
Published on May 28 2004 by TheIndianExpat
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful!
I have owned this book for 6 years. I have picked up this book a dozen time- if not more- and I could never get past the first page. Read more
Published on May 26 2004
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Touching Novel
Ursula Hegi's "Stones from the River" is a very touching novel about a zwerge (dwarf) girl, Trudi, who lives in Burgdorf, Germany. Read more
Published on May 14 2004 by Emilie
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excitingly moving
Reading Ursula Hegi's book, Stones from a River, for the first time was excitingly moving. The book is told by Trudi Montag, a dwarf girl, a zwerg in a little town of Burgdorf,... Read more
Published on May 10 2004 by Shana McMahon
2.0 out of 5 stars
Meghan from CT
Stones from the River by Usula Heigi focuses on the life of a dwarf in Germany during the Nazi occupation. Read more
Published on May 9 2004
5.0 out of 5 stars
I couldn't put it down
I read books during my 30-minute lunch break at work, and I sped through this novel, always wanting to sit for longer than those 30 minutes each day! Read more
Published on Oct 20 2003 by EditorKatie
5.0 out of 5 stars
Solitude and Diversity in World War II
This book is a book about diversity, and the solitude it brings on. Trudi Montag is a dwarf -a Zwerg- and this condition isolates her from other people, who are not able to see the... Read more
Published on Oct 16 2003 by Spinillo Patrizio
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's not easy being Zwerg
This is the story of an extraordinary person growing up in an extraordinary time. Trudi Montag is a Zwerg- dwarf- living in Germany during the Holocaust. Read more
Published on Aug 25 2003 by Amy
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