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The central event in Hilde's childhood occurred on 2 February, 1945. She was a confused but compliant girl at the time. Now she is a depressed and angry old woman, who is haunted by the memory of that shameful day. For on that day in February, the ordinary citizens of her village hunted down and murdered approximately 500 prisoners who had escaped from the concentration camp in Mauthausen. This brilliant novel renders the experiences of common people caught up in the political cyclone of the time, reminding us that history is not behind us, nor is it outside us. ... Read more

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INTRODUCING AUSTRIA provides in compact form a comprehensive overview of the country's rich past and present. The first half of the book deals with Austria before 1918. Each chapter and subchapter approaches Austria's diverse, thousand-year-old heritage from a different perspective to illuminate its essential features. The second half of the book deals with Austria's turbulent history from 1918 to the present. Controversial issues are presented objectively and without oversimplification. Overall the book conveys a differentiated picture of the country and its people and should give readers a feeling for the continuity and change of the Austrian idea. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

My Homework for My Trip to Austria
I actually purchased this book in preparation for my vacation in Austria.The book served as a superb reference in understanding the more current aspect of Austria's history.Additionally, the book provided a good sense of modern politics in Austria... providing a sense of the various political view and why people hold these views.

Recent History and Regionalism
Introducing Austria might better have been titled "Introducing Austrians." The author's goal, as he explains in the Preface, is to supplement traditional histories and guidebooks with a work that illuminates the character, attitudes, and internal differences among the Austrian population. The focus is on events and issues since 1918; only 35 pages are devoted to the history of Austria from prehistory to the First World War. Obviously this is not the book to buy if your primary interest is the Habsburg dynasty.

The strength of the book is its depiction of the social and political characteristics of the different regions of Austria and how these characteristics have shaped recent history. The text is informal, often humorous, and illustrated with political cartoons. There is a brief appendix with travel information and a useful bibliographic essay.

Introducing Austria is recommended for the business traveler or diplomat who wants to learn about modern Austria. The historian or tourist will also find the book informative and entertaining, but will want to look elsewhere for details about Austria's Imperial past.

As a Viennese/American I loved this book!
As an Austro/American I enjoyed this book very much. I found muyself smiling at the description of our character, while nodding my head in agreement over all the historic fact. I would higly recommend this book to everybody in an Austro-relationship and anybody who would like to learn more about the real Austrians. ... Read more

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The time for autobiographies has arrived. Interest in authentic life stories seems greater than ever, even greater than well written works of fiction, because readers begin to recognise that nothing is more fantastic than the complicated reality through which we are forced to make our way. Accounts of everyday life have long since become a source of historic insight, and even historians are beginning to admit that concrete vignettes of an autobiographer's life are often better able to portray what the past was really like. All of this holds true for the memoirs of Jakob Ludwig Heller, who lived in the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the 19th and 20th centuries. The records that he left behind reveal that nostalgic individuals were not far wrong in viewing the Empire and its era as the quintessence of an intact world.Of course things were not as peaceful and happy for everyone in the Danube monarchy, but compared with today's world, Jakob Ludwig Heller's milieu was a true idyll, where marriages endured, family ties were strong, hard work was rewarded, and people rejoiced over simple social gatherings.Upbringing was strict, but caring, the children were well behaved, and earning a living was fun. Long live progress! The feeling that what he describes is lost forever is magnified further by the fact that he grew up in a Jewish, Central European milieu, where Jews perhaps did not live without tensions among neighbours of other faiths, but did live without being persecuted, robbed, and murdered. Not only Jewish readers will regret the loss of that normal way of life.Near the end of his memoirs, in retrospect the diarist complains about the inexplicable intrusions of lax morals, the disappearance of fixed norms, and the lack of the earlier, ever-present feeling of security and continuity. What would he say today? But what makes the reading of this simple story so rewarding, apart from the historic information, is the intelligent, humorous, warm-hearted man who is encountered on every page. His comments about the First World War are especially touching. Despite his extensive life experience, they betray his naive belief in Germany and Austria, in the government and the army.He is convinced that the Central Powers fight for a just cause at a time when Karl Kraus is writing "The Last Days of Mankind".But in those days the great satirist was still quite alone with his opinion. Most of the Jews, even most of the people, probably felt as did Jakob Ludwig Heller. And the waning of those certainties is the greatest tragedy of all, a sign of the insurmountable distance between our world and that of the past. ... Read more

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This translation of Thomas Bernhard's "Der Weltverbesserer" makes a contemporary masterpiece available to English language readers for the first time. While echoing the dramatic works of Samuel Becket, Heiner Muller and Peter Handke, "The World-Fixer" is quintessentially Bernardian and one of his most stage-worthy plays. Presenting a theme he would explore in the play "Ritter Dene Voss" and the novels "Wittgenstein's Nephew" and "The Loser", "The World-Fixer" revolves around a self-centred, self-styled genius loosely patterned on Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. The protagonist is the author of an obscure philosophical tract ostensibly designed to improve the condition of the world, if the world could only understand it. Over the course of a day, he looks forward to receiving an honorary degree, while reflecting on his life and engaging in dysfunctional banter. Combining absurdist comedy with an astute satire of academic pomposity, "The World-Fixer" ultimately gives a moving portrait of simple human frailty. ... Read more

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This is the first anthology in English devoted entirely to contemporary Austrian drama written by women. The selection starts with Clara S. by Nobel-Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek, which examines the female artist's existence in a society where artistic genius is coded male and women are relegated to subordinate positions. Gerlinde Obermeir's San Francisco Of Course is a series of short episodes depicting the fate of a woman whose world collapses in the face of brutal, norm-setting patriarchal oppression. Marlene Streeruwitz's New York, New York is a mixture of tragedy, comedy and farce, a collage of highly choreographed everyday and surreal scenes, quotations and filmic and acoustic elements highlighting the trans-historical continuation of the exploitative patterns inherent in social structures, in which men possess and exert all the power. Michaela Ronzoni's 610 Bedford Drive -- I'm an American centers on a lengthy and bitter dispute between the culturally refined European thinker and writer Franz Werfel and the brash and impatient American dramatist Clifford Odets. Finally Margret Kreidl's ;Grateful Women (A Comedy)is like a prose-poem in which the three female characters act out a set of female rituals, interspersed with memories, fantasies, crises and unresolved desires. At times conventional, at times experimental, the selected plays provide a representative overview of the variety and diversity of women's drama in Austria from the early eighties to the present. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Showcases fresh and exciting theater
Women's Words, Women's Works: An Anthology Of Contemporary Austrian Plays By Women compiled by Udo Bogert (Chair of the Department of Germanic Studies, University of Sydney) is a fascinating English translation of new, original, provocative, and captivating plays written by Austrian women over the past twenty years. A lengthy introduction prepares the reader to savor Clara S.: A Musical Tragedy, as well as San Francisco of Course and three other plays. A highly recommended addition to professional and academic collections, Women's Words, Women's Works showcases fresh and exciting theater in this unique, compelling, and diverse anthology presenting the best of what Austrian women have to offer in the field of theatrical drama. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Chillingly fascinating survivor's account
Drach, an Austrian-Jewish lawyer and (then) closet-writer (he achieved success very late in life, long after world war 2), is forced to flee to France after the German's occupy Austria. He ended up in occupied France and survived by determination, pretending to be Catholic and luck. In his "report", written just after the war, he relates the story of his survival and really bares his soul. This is by no means a pleasant story about a likeable character; in order to survive, the "hero" has to cheat, be egotistical, pretend to be something he isn't, and more. Drachs tale is very detached, he refuses to justify himself and his actions, and it is this style that makes the book so chilling. A very accurate portrayal of the price he payed for survival that pulls you in from the first page. Hightly recomended! ... Read more

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A young man wakes up next to a dead woman who is covered with blood. The victim is lying on his bed and the murder weapon is in his hand. He immediately becomes the primary suspect in the woman's slaying, although he insists that he knows neither the woman nor how she came to be in his bed. The path to solving the mystery follows a winding course through time and space, Important scenes occur in Linz, Austria in 1991, Prague in 1968, the Nazi concentration camp at Terezin during World War II, and a psychiatric ward in Moscow in 1991. The major characters range from the police inspector and his suspect to ruthless villains, helpless victims, a shyster lawyer, and a KGB hit man, all of whom are involved in a complex story line dealing with terrible family secrets, diabolical genetic research projects, a love affair that has gone sour, and crimes with international repercussions. The result is a powerful portrait of the psychology of violence. ... Read more

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This second volume of Felix Mitterer's plays in English translation offers further evidence of this dramatist's powerful artistry. A mythological WILD WOMAN changes the lives of five woodcutters, exposing their loneliness and desperation. HOME reiterates the dictum that 'you can't go home again,' especially where prejudice, brutality, and hatred reside. An historical drama based on actual court records, CHILDREN OF THE DEVIL depicts institutional superstition and cruelty as perpetuated upon the most vulnerable members of society, its children. ONE EVERYMAN is a modern version of the traditional medieval morality play, complete with a Devil from Wall Street, while the Biblical analogy, ABRAHAM, concerns the scourge of AIDS -- but even more, the love between a father and his son. ... Read more