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About
Germany, 1878: young brothers Paul and Karl Effinger leave the German provinces to seek their fortune in Berlin. Ambitious and talented, they soon establish themselves as entrepreneurs and marry the daughters of high-society families. A flourishing horizon opens before them, but the Great War and the youthful rebellion of the 1920s lay waste to bourgeois certainties, and, as the generations pass, a rising antisemitism begins to shadow their bright world.With dazzling historical sweep, Gabriele Tergit tells of the family's changing fortunes within the vibrantly evoked, ever-changing metropolis of Berlin. Full of parties, drama and the most delicious gossip, The Effingers is a vibrant, monumental portrait of Germany's Jewish life, in all its richness and complexity.
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Reviews
"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... A wonderfully vivid social portrait of pre-Nazi Berlin, whose party scenes are filled with meticulous descriptions of fashion, food, interior decor and gossip"
Guardian
"A vivid chronicle of German Jewish life over the course of 70 years... Thoroughly immersive and unfolds in precise, often stark prose...Not only a sweeping panorama but also a series of captivating portraits... Tergit never loses interest in the human, and ensures we root for her compelling characters until the bitter end"
Spectator
"Inspired by Tergit's own family history, this account of the rise and fall of a German Jewish clan has an addictive immediacy that will make you reluctant to put it down"
New York Times