Nowhere in Africa: An Autobiographical Novel

by Stefanie Zweig, Marlies Comjean (Translator)

Overview

Nowhere in Africa is the extraordinary tale of a Jewish family who flees the Nazi regime in 1938 for a remote farm in Kenya. Abandoning their once-comfortable existence in Germany, Walter Redlich, his wife Jettel, and their five-year-old daughter, Regina, each deal with the harsh realities of their new life in different ways. Attorney Walter is resigned to working the farm as a caretaker; pampered Jettel resists adjustment at every turn; while the shy yet curious Regina immediately embraces the country—learning the local language and customs, and finding a friend in Owuor, the farm's cook. As the war rages on the other side of the world, the family’s relationships with their strange environment become increasingly complicated as Jettel grows more self-assured and Walter more haunted by the life they left behind. In 1946, with the war over, Regina's fondest dream comes true when her brother Max is born. Walter's decision, however, to return to his homeland to help rebuild a new Germany puts his family into turmoil again.

Visit the Web site for the film at www.nowhereinafrica.com

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780299199630
Publisher:	University of Wisconsin Press
Publication date:	02/24/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	806,101
File size:	718 KB

About the Author

Stefanie Zweig was born in Leobschutz, Upper Silesia, in 1932. In 1938 she and her parents fled to Kenya, as a result of the Nazi persecution of Jews. Her father, a lawyer and notary public, worked as a manager on a farm and earned just enough to finance his daughter's schooling. The family spent most of its time in Ol’ Joro Orok, situated directly at the Equator—3,000 meters above sea level—a very remote place, even for Africa. In 1944 Stefanie Zweig's father enlisted in the British Army, which also enabled him and his family to return to Germany in 1947. Upon their return, they were shocked to see so much destruction, hunger, and despair. Stefanie, who could not read or write German, had problems adjusting to this alien world. However, after graduating from high school she worked as a journalist for a Jewish newspaper. In 1963 she became the chief editor of the culture section of the Abendpost-Nachtausgabe in Frankfurt. She has been working as a freelance journalist and author since 1988. She has written numerous youth books and novels, which have won many awards and prizes in Europe, and her autobiographical novels Nirgendwo in Afrika and Irgendwo in Deutschland have become bestsellers.

Table of Contents

Dedication Preface 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Editorial Reviews

By 1938, the Nazi terror had flung German Jews far and wide, in an ad hoc diaspora reaching from Argentina to Shanghai. One less-known place of refuge was Kenya, where middle-class Jewish families struggled to adapt to life in a rural outpost of the British Empire. Nowhere in Africa, which inspired the excellent film of the same name, is Stefanie Zweig's frankly autobiographical novel about this bewildered, homesick group of refugees.”—Rand Richards Cooper, New York Times Book Review



“A remarkable Holocaust memoir. . . . The story of flight, upheaval, adjustment, disruption, and turmoil is impressive testimony to the strength of the human spirit and is well worth reading.”—Morton I. Teicher, National Jewish Post and Opinion



“Based on Zweig’s personal experience as a German Jewish refugee child in Kenya during World War II, this novel inspired the 2002 Oscar Award winner for best foreign film. . . . The ironic mix of anger and sorrow is unforgettable.”—Booklist

From the Publisher