The Have-Nots (German Book Prize winner)

The Have-Nots is a novel by German author Katharina Hacker (1967- ) published in 2006, won the German Book Prize in the same year, and was praised by the jury for having confronted our age's most pressing issues.


From Publishers Weekly [1]

Hacker (Morpheus; The Lifeguard) entwines the lives of three unusual households in post-9/11 suburban London. Isabelle and Jakob are 30-something German newlyweds who move to Britain after Jakob takes the job of a colleague killed on 9/11. Jakob is an attorney and Isabelle is an artist and wanderer, and their relationship, built hastily in the aftermath of 9/11 (Jakob was at the Trade Center on September 10 for business, and he met Isabelle the next day back in Germany; his colleague stayed behind in New York), has trouble reaching equilibrium. Next door lives Sara, a young girl with developmental problems who is abused by her parents and finds comfort in her cat, Polly. Meanwhile, Jim, a gruff drug dealer squatting in a house down the block, has taken a fancy to Isabelle, who reminds him of his missing girlfriend. Hacker plumbs the dark psyches of her characters—their capacities for violence, their desires and uncertainties and their guilt and shame—as Sara's home life worsens, eventually involving the neighbors. Hacker's prose, aided by Atkins's pristine translation, soars, particularly in her treatment of city and bourgeois life, and though her characters sometimes act inexplicably, she admirably explores modern urban life from the unsettled haves to the desperate have-nots. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved [1].

About the Author

Katharina Hacker is a German author best known for her award-winning novel Die Habenichtse (The Have-Nots). Hacker studied philosophy, history and Jewish studies at the University of Freiburg and the University of Jerusalem. Since 1996 she has been living as a freelance writer in Berlin. In 2006 she was the second writer to be awarded the German Book Prize for Die Habenichtse [2].

Katharina Hacker's previous books, Morpheus (2003) and The Lifeguard (2000), have earned her a reputation as one of the most discerning and elegant stylists in contemporary German literature. Born in 1967 in Frankfurt, she has lived in Berlin since 1996 [1].

[1] The Have-Nots, Amazon . com/gp/product/1933372419

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharina_Hacker

The Known World (Pulitzer Prize, NBCC Award, and International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award winner)

The Known World is a historical novel by American author Edward P. Jones (1951- ); published in 2003 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 2004, a National Book Critics Circle Award in the same year, and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (the world's literary prize with the largest purse) in 2005.

Plot Summary [1]

Henry Townsend is born a slave, but dies as a prosperous slave owner, leaving his widow Caldonia a significant legacy to deal with. Like his father Augustus, Henry is extraordinarily talented and uses his gifts to buy his freedom. Unlike his father, Henry accepts that slavery is legal and purchases a number of slaves from his ex-master William Robbins, the first of whom, cruel Moses, he makes overseer. The revelation of this situation causes a break between father and son, healed only as Henry nears death.

Robbins, the largest and most powerful landowner in Manchester County, Virginia, is unhappily married to a white woman and involved for the second time with a slave, whom he comes to love dearly. He dotes on his black children, providing for their education from a black female teacher, Fern Elston, which connects them with Henry and Caldonia during their student years. Robbins also provides ongoing advice to Henry on the obligations and demands of slave owning, and controls who will serve as sheriff in the county.

John Skiffington becomes sheriff after his long-tenured predecessor disappoints Robbins. John, a fervent Bible reader, is personally determined not to hold slaves, but dedicated to maintaining a social institution he believes both civil and divine laws bless and guarantee. He and his wife, Winifred, are given Minerva as wedding present by his cousin Counsel. They feel Minerva will fare worse in any situation other than remaining with them, and they treat her as a daughter. As Minerva nears adulthood, John is ashamed and fearful to find himself lusting after her.

John's duties are few in this peaceful county until slaves begin disappearing from Caldonia's plantation. John suspects that the overseer Moses is involved, as indeed he is. Moses is determined to marry his widowed mistress and sends his wife and son away, in the company of the crazy slave Alice. The sheriff suspects Moses has murdered them and organizes an intensive search. John's fortunes further decline when his slave patrols illegally strip Augustus of his freedom and sell hip to a wandering speculator. Finally sold on the Georgia/Florida border, Augustus is murdered by his new master as he begins the long walk back north. Moses oversteps his bounds with Caldonia, realizes his plans have failed, and he also takes flight.

Realizing Robbins has lost faith in him, the sheriff discovers where Moses must be hiding, and while trying to shake off the agony of a toothache in order to do his sworn duty, he sets off with his deputy/cousin to Mildred's home. Moses is there, taken in by Mildred, who stands with a rifle and refuses to surrender him. Pain prevents John from keeping his usual calm, civil demeanor, and he lashes out at the poor widow Mildred. John accidentally shoots Mildred dead, and is in turn gunned down by Counsel, who believes he has found the treasure that will restore his lost fortunes. Moses surrenders to Counsel, who intends to blame the two dead people for each other's murder. Moses is taken back to town, and savagely hobbled by the patrollers en route, to prevent him from ever wandering off again. Moses lives out his declining days cared for by the new overseer's cripple wife, for whose miscarriage he is responsible.

Robbins's white and black daughters meet after he suffers a stroke. Winifred and Minerva move to Philadelphia, but there they become parted. Caldonia remarries and remains with Robbins's black son, Louis Cartwright, on the plantation. Caldonia also learns from her brother Calvin, who has moved to Washington, D.C., that Celeste, Jamie, and Alice did not perish in the Manchester woods as many people thought, but are flourishing in the big city on the eve of the Civil War. Alice, no longer a crazy woman, has created two magnificent pieces of art depicting life in Manchester County and on the Townsend plantation.

[1] http://litsum.com/known-world