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Christoph Hein, Landnahme. Frankfurt a.M. Suhrkamp. 2004. 356 pages. euro19.90. ISBN 30-518-416010-4
BERNHARD HABER'S storyline in Landnahme is the study of the long-term consequences of early rejection: a desire for revenge and success. The beginning of the novel takes the readers back to the post-World War II period and the expulsion of Germans from the easternmost provinces that were turned over to Poland-a topic currently popular among German fiction and nonfiction writers. Expelled from Silesia, Bernhard and his parents resettle in a small town in Saxony. But the refugees are not accepted by the narrow-minded indigenous population: Bernhard is humiliated at school, his beloved dog is killed, the carpentry workshop of his father who lost one arm in the war is burned down, and his father murdered. The taciturn, physically strong Bernhard...