Die Tochter des Kommunisten by Aroa Moreno Durán translated into German by Marianne Gareis La hija del comunista

The echoes of Spanish civil war and the Franco dictatorship into the European history and literature is a topic that I am very much interested to explore more, also  as part of my efforts to keep my Spanish atop. 

This time though, I´ve chosen a book translated from Spanish: Die Tochter des Kommunisten - The Communist´s Daughter, the translation of the title is all mine; the original title is La hija del comunista - by Aroa Moreno Durán, translated into German by Marianne Gareis. 

The book is very short - and probably would have match my attention span for reading in Spanish - but will maybe address this topic another time.

As for the book, it follows the story of Katia, the daugher of a family of Spanish refugees in Eastern Germany. In her early 20s, she fell in love with a mysterious German man from the West. She left everything behind escaping on the other side of the Wall, and will end up in an unhappy marriage with her playing the role of a housewife - she established in the South of Germany. When she is back - broken, divorced, feeling guilty for not being there when her father died - the Wall went down and the dirty secrets of the People´s Republic where out, and so her own family story.

The story follows a predictable and at certain extents realistic, story frame related to the post-war Germany, both historically and in terms of mentalities. Some may say it continues in certain parts of Germany until today - recently I´ve visited Eastern part of Germany, and watched a movie in a museum where the voice off said something like ´some may say the re-unification of Germany was a mistake´ and one of the participants, in his 60s, loudly agreed. 

Katia, as a character, is the main storyteller, but although she is a character with clear agent and intentions - she decided to leave as she decided to divorce, but in between those moments there is a huge hiatus where she is lost - is non-existent, non-cognitive. Her development stagnates and turned her as thin as a piece of paper. 

One of the strongest and elaborated although short is the meeting between her and her ailing mother, in the apartment where she grew up. Stuck in time, but so different, withough any future though.

Both story and characters do have a potential that it is not reached unfortunately, but it does have a story direction and a very reflective ending. The young Spanish literature nowadays is such a gem that deserves more attention and more space on my blog. Working on it.

Rating: 3.5 stars