The Last Country

The beginning of the 20th century in northern Germany. Ruven Preuk, the youngest son of the village wainwright, has an extraordinary musical gift: he sees notes, and can play incredible melodies on his violin. This, however, does not only bring him admiration from the village where life is simple and tough.

Eventually even his father realizes there is nothing to be done with his son and, at wit's end, attempts to beat the notes out of him. In town Ruven studies with the Jewish violin teacher Goldbaum, and falls in love with his granddaughter Rahel as much as he does with his belief in a glowing future. Art means freedom and recognition, but the Nazis are already on the march. On the eve of his imminent breakthrough, the Second World War wrenches Germany into the abyss and Ruven must find his way anew, at the end of all melodies.

With her new book, Svenja Leiber offers us a true Bildungsroman: while an entire country collapses around him, against all odds one extraordinary musician follows his talent.

Selected Foreign Editions

Spanish edition released by Malpaso >>
 

»The Last Country is an exciting book that could be called a Bildungsroman, a novel of the artist or a panorama of a century – all of that. But above all, it is a book about what it means to see how their own desires cannot be fulfilled.« Die Welt

»The literal and titular ›Last Country‹ is Germany which Leiber describes with a few literary brushstrokes and casts a panoramic view into its hellish years.« Spiegel Online

»A socially clairvoyant novel.« neues deutschland

»Leiber has an eye for people who cannot find a place in life or make a living and hardly have a voice. Leiber gives them voice in her books.« Deutschlandfunk

»Svenja Leiber lets people experience justice, above all those who are helpless before themselves.« From the laudatio on the occasion of Svenja Leiber being awarded the Werner Bergengruen Prize.