{"product_id":"2940152096507","title":"Languageland","description":"\u003cp\u003eElisabeth Augustin, 1903-2001, poet in exile, and Holocaust survivor.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne of Elisabeth's poems begins with \"why the, nightingale, were you give a voice, if you don't sing?\"She never stopped singing. Sometimes gentle, sometimes impassionately attacking any form of discrimination.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn her workroom, facing the garden, Elisabeth Augustin slowly fades away, a real life re-enactment of the prophetic last pages of her novel Labyrint. Only a few years earlier she still wrote poems, now she passes on in her sleep.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDaughter of a Jewish mother, she nevertheless was baptized a Catholic and grew up in a 'respectable' German environment, first near Berlin, later near Leipzig. So respectable in fact, that her father put a stop to her budding acting and movie career. The experience however, proved invaluable when writing for the stage, radio and films.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eElisabeth wrote her first play while still at primary school - her audience: her mother and the housekeeper. Poems and short stories followed, and her first novel was about to be published in 1933. It was not to be: Hitler came onto the scene and having Jewish ancestors became a crime. Her near idyllic life changed drastically. Elisabeth emigrated with her Swiss-born husband and two children to Amsterdam, Holland. Once she had translated her novel into Dutch, she quickly found a publisher again. Three more novels followed in rapid succession, all stark but passionate pleas against social injustice.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHer parents escaped from Germany in 1938, came to live in Amsterdam too, but in vain: her mother was killed in the gas chambers of the extermination camp Sobibor. These events have colored Elisabeth’s writing ever since and in particular her almost surreal fifth novel Labyrint.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe bibliography in one of her books - a collection of short stories, poems and a play - is no less than seven closely printed pages long! Impressive too is the list of awards and honors, culminating in the prestigious ‘Goethe Prize’ from Germany.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe two visits, each eight months long, to her daughter and son-in-law in Auckland gave further inspiration and insight that no matter where she lived, the essential thing was living ‘within her language’ - her true homeland\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eemigratedfrom my landfrom my language-landthought land everywherelanguage everywheremistakebut one landmy languageland\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Leo Cappel","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47181183222000,"sku":"2940152096507","price":3.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940152096507_p0.jpg?v=1764019385","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940152096507","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}