Written in 1951 and now translated into English for the first time, this family saga by the acclaimed German author recaptures a golden age for Jewish life

In 1948, the German Jewish author Gabriele Tergit travelled to Berlin. There, in ruins, was the city in which she was born and grew up, reported on, then chronicled in fiction. Tergit had been one of the shining lights of interwar Berlin’s flourishing journalistic scene; she had also married into one of the city’s most prominent Jewish families. In 1931 her debut novel announced her as a literary phenomenon.

Then the Nazis came to power. Tergit was on an enemies list. She fled, first to Czechoslovakia, then to Palestine, and finally to London, where she lived from 1938 until her death in 1982. Never again did she call Berlin home. When she visited after the war, she found no real place in the conservative postwar German literary world – and no real audience for The Effingers, her newly completed magnum opus. A version was printed in 1951, but to little acclaim; only recently has a critical rediscovery in Germany established Tergit as one of the country’s major authors. Now, thanks to an excellent translation by Sophie Duvernoy, The Effingers is appearing in English.

This story set in North Macedonia stars non-professional actors and follows ageing farmers trying to survive in a cockle-warming family film

Like director Tamara Kotevska’s previous feature Honeyland (which she co-directed with Ljubomir Stefanov), this sly, delightful film is neither a pure documentary nor a work of fiction. Instead, working with non-professional actors and a story clearly premeditated enough to earn a credit for its authors (Kotevska and Suz Curtis), this blends folk tale, improvisation and mud-caked vérité to tell the story of a contemporary farming family, the Conevs, in economically depressed North Macedonia.

Sixtysomething paterfamilias Nikola and his wife, Jana, have been growing watermelons, tomatoes and tobacco on the family land for years. However, the wholesale prices have recently dropped through the soil, prompting a mini riot by irate agricultural workers who take out their frustrations by destroying their own crops. Nikola and Jana’s daughter Ana decides to emigrate to Germany with her husband, taking their preschool-aged daughter with them, only to discover that most of their wages will be eaten up by childcare fees. They implore Jana to come out and be their childminder, leaving Nikola to try to sell the farmland for a pittance and find a job at a local landfill. Melancholy video-calls to the family abroad underscore his loneliness, but at least he has old mucker Ilija to talk to and share the odd bottle of hooch.

Written in 1951 and now translated into English for the first time, this family saga by the acclaimed German author recaptures a golden age for Jewish life

In 1948, the German Jewish author Gabriele Tergit travelled to Berlin. There, in ruins, was the city in which she was born and grew up, reported on, then chronicled in fiction. Tergit had been one of the shining lights of interwar Berlin’s flourishing journalistic scene; she had also married into one of the city’s most prominent Jewish families. In 1931 her debut novel announced her as a literary phenomenon.

Then the Nazis came to power. Tergit was on an enemies list. She fled, first to Czechoslovakia, then to Palestine, and finally to London, where she lived from 1938 until her death in 1982. Never again did she call Berlin home. When she visited after the war, she found no real place in the conservative postwar German literary world – and no real audience for The Effingers, her newly completed magnum opus. A version was printed in 1951, but to little acclaim; only recently has a critical rediscovery in Germany established Tergit as one of the country’s major authors. Now, thanks to an excellent translation by Sophie Duvernoy, The Effingers is appearing in English.

Written in 1951 and now translated into English for the first time, this family saga by the acclaimed German author recaptures a golden age for Jewish life

In 1948, the German Jewish author Gabriele Tergit travelled to Berlin. There, in ruins, was the city in which she was born and grew up, reported on, then chronicled in fiction. Tergit had been one of the shining lights of interwar Berlin’s flourishing journalistic scene; she had also married into one of the city’s most prominent Jewish families. In 1931 her debut novel announced her as a literary phenomenon.

Then the Nazis came to power. Tergit was on an enemies list. She fled, first to Czechoslovakia, then to Palestine, and finally to London, where she lived from 1938 until her death in 1982. Never again did she call Berlin home. When she visited after the war, she found no real place in the conservative postwar German literary world – and no real audience for The Effingers, her newly completed magnum opus. A version was printed in 1951, but to little acclaim; only recently has a critical rediscovery in Germany established Tergit as one of the country’s major authors. Now, thanks to an excellent translation by Sophie Duvernoy, The Effingers is appearing in English.

Written in 1951 and now translated into English for the first time, this family saga by the acclaimed German author recaptures a golden age for Jewish life

In 1948, the German Jewish author Gabriele Tergit travelled to Berlin. There, in ruins, was the city in which she was born and grew up, reported on, then chronicled in fiction. Tergit had been one of the shining lights of interwar Berlin’s flourishing journalistic scene; she had also married into one of the city’s most prominent Jewish families. In 1931 her debut novel announced her as a literary phenomenon.

Then the Nazis came to power. Tergit was on an enemies list. She fled, first to Czechoslovakia, then to Palestine, and finally to London, where she lived from 1938 until her death in 1982. Never again did she call Berlin home. When she visited after the war, she found no real place in the conservative postwar German literary world – and no real audience for The Effingers, her newly completed magnum opus. A version was printed in 1951, but to little acclaim; only recently has a critical rediscovery in Germany established Tergit as one of the country’s major authors. Now, thanks to an excellent translation by Sophie Duvernoy, The Effingers is appearing in English.

Written in 1951 and now translated into English for the first time, this family saga by the acclaimed German author recaptures a golden age for Jewish life

In 1948, the German Jewish author Gabriele Tergit travelled to Berlin. There, in ruins, was the city in which she was born and grew up, reported on, then chronicled in fiction. Tergit had been one of the shining lights of interwar Berlin’s flourishing journalistic scene; she had also married into one of the city’s most prominent Jewish families. In 1931 her debut novel announced her as a literary phenomenon.

Then the Nazis came to power. Tergit was on an enemies list. She fled, first to Czechoslovakia, then to Palestine, and finally to London, where she lived from 1938 until her death in 1982. Never again did she call Berlin home. When she visited after the war, she found no real place in the conservative postwar German literary world – and no real audience for The Effingers, her newly completed magnum opus. A version was printed in 1951, but to little acclaim; only recently has a critical rediscovery in Germany established Tergit as one of the country’s major authors. Now, thanks to an excellent translation by Sophie Duvernoy, The Effingers is appearing in English.

This story set in North Macedonia stars non-professional actors and follows ageing farmers trying to survive in a cockle-warming family film

Like director Tamara Kotevska’s previous feature Honeyland (which she co-directed with Ljubomir Stefanov), this sly, delightful film is neither a pure documentary nor a work of fiction. Instead, working with non-professional actors and a story clearly premeditated enough to earn a credit for its authors (Kotevska and Suz Curtis), this blends folk tale, improvisation and mud-caked vérité to tell the story of a contemporary farming family, the Conevs, in economically depressed North Macedonia.

Sixtysomething paterfamilias Nikola and his wife, Jana, have been growing watermelons, tomatoes and tobacco on the family land for years. However, the wholesale prices have recently dropped through the soil, prompting a mini riot by irate agricultural workers who take out their frustrations by destroying their own crops. Nikola and Jana’s daughter Ana decides to emigrate to Germany with her husband, taking their preschool-aged daughter with them, only to discover that most of their wages will be eaten up by childcare fees. They implore Jana to come out and be their childminder, leaving Nikola to try to sell the farmland for a pittance and find a job at a local landfill. Melancholy video-calls to the family abroad underscore his loneliness, but at least he has old mucker Ilija to talk to and share the odd bottle of hooch.

This story set in North Macedonia stars non-professional actors and follows ageing farmers trying to survive in a cockle-warming family film

Like director Tamara Kotevska’s previous feature Honeyland (which she co-directed with Ljubomir Stefanov), this sly, delightful film is neither a pure documentary nor a work of fiction. Instead, working with non-professional actors and a story clearly premeditated enough to earn a credit for its authors (Kotevska and Suz Curtis), this blends folk tale, improvisation and mud-caked vérité to tell the story of a contemporary farming family, the Conevs, in economically depressed North Macedonia.

Sixtysomething paterfamilias Nikola and his wife, Jana, have been growing watermelons, tomatoes and tobacco on the family land for years. However, the wholesale prices have recently dropped through the soil, prompting a mini riot by irate agricultural workers who take out their frustrations by destroying their own crops. Nikola and Jana’s daughter Ana decides to emigrate to Germany with her husband, taking their preschool-aged daughter with them, only to discover that most of their wages will be eaten up by childcare fees. They implore Jana to come out and be their childminder, leaving Nikola to try to sell the farmland for a pittance and find a job at a local landfill. Melancholy video-calls to the family abroad underscore his loneliness, but at least he has old mucker Ilija to talk to and share the odd bottle of hooch.

This story set in North Macedonia stars non-professional actors and follows ageing farmers trying to survive in a cockle-warming family film

Like director Tamara Kotevska’s previous feature Honeyland (which she co-directed with Ljubomir Stefanov), this sly, delightful film is neither a pure documentary nor a work of fiction. Instead, working with non-professional actors and a story clearly premeditated enough to earn a credit for its authors (Kotevska and Suz Curtis), this blends folk tale, improvisation and mud-caked vérité to tell the story of a contemporary farming family, the Conevs, in economically depressed North Macedonia.

Sixtysomething paterfamilias Nikola and his wife, Jana, have been growing watermelons, tomatoes and tobacco on the family land for years. However, the wholesale prices have recently dropped through the soil, prompting a mini riot by irate agricultural workers who take out their frustrations by destroying their own crops. Nikola and Jana’s daughter Ana decides to emigrate to Germany with her husband, taking their preschool-aged daughter with them, only to discover that most of their wages will be eaten up by childcare fees. They implore Jana to come out and be their childminder, leaving Nikola to try to sell the farmland for a pittance and find a job at a local landfill. Melancholy video-calls to the family abroad underscore his loneliness, but at least he has old mucker Ilija to talk to and share the odd bottle of hooch.