Heimweg (English: "The Way Home") is a novel from the German author and journalist
Harald Martenstein
Harald Martenstein (born 9 September 1953, in Mainz) is a German journalist and author.
Biography
Martenstein studied History and Romance Studies in Freiburg. From 1981 to 1988, he was a journalist at the ''Stuttgarter Zeitung'' and from 1988 ...
. It was released in February 2007. In Germany, it is currently the most popular representation of post-war fiction.
Plot
The focus of the story is on the
first-person narrator, a grandfather named Josef. He returns home from Russian captivity after the war to find his wife Katharina in an
adulterous
Adultery (from Latin ''adulterium'') is extramarital sex that is considered objectionable on social, religious, moral, or legal grounds. Although the sexual activities that constitute adultery vary, as well as the social, religious, and legal ...
relationship. Over the course of the story, he tries to get her back. In this respect, he is successful, seeing that she is becoming insane and in this connection only turns to him. The family history continues over several generations, revealing several torn characters and many murders, including his son's murder and suicide. In a key scene, it is revealed that Josef ordered the execution of a Russian commissar during World War II. This is executed helplessly and without judgment by the
Commissar Order
The Commissar Order (german: Kommissarbefehl) was an order issued by the German High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, OKW) on 6 June 1941 before Operation Barbarossa. Its official name was Guidelines for the Treatment of Political Commissars ...
. After that, Josef needlessly kills another corpse of crouching boys.
Towards the end of the story, the mental confusion of Katharina is explained. The "visitors" that she believes to be in her apartment, are in fact the family members of the dead. They appear again in the book on a fictional level as a quasi-ghost figure, while at the same time the heroes appear to be real. The reader learns this as the real family members begin to die. Finally, the first-person narrator finally turns out to be the spirits of the murdered boys.
German-language novels