Heinrich Böll: The Clown. Billiards at Half-Past Nine

"The Clown" (1963)
"I am a clown and I collect moments," says Hans Schnier of himself, a destitute artist, "a stranger among his own, one of his own among strangers," the prodigal son of wealthy high-society bourgeoisie, and the protagonist of one of the finest, most poignant, and bitter European books of the 20th century.
The action of Böll’s novel, first published in 1963 and called by critics the "German Catcher in the Rye," takes place over the course of just one day in Hans’s life. However, this day, in which present events are intertwined with memories of the past, summarizes not only the life of the saddest clown but also the fate of all of Germany—seemingly happy and prosperous at first glance, but in reality deeply struggling with the drama of its involvement in the defeated, yet not forgotten, "ordinary fascism."

"Billiards at Half-Past Nine" (1959)
Architect Heinrich Fähmel is turning eighty. An anniversary is a good reason to take stock of a life lived.
His victory—the victory of an unknown outsider in a competition to build the Abbey of St. Anthony—promised a full and happy life…
But in the end—betrayed expectations…
Heinrich’s wife is kept in a private asylum for the mentally ill, and his youngest son, Otto, who sided with the executioners ready to drown the world in blood while still a youth, has become a stranger to his own family…
This day, which became a turning point in the fate of the novel's characters, brings the entire tragic history of Germany in the second half of the 20th century into focus…

Author: Heinrich Böll 

Translation: Rita Wright-Kovaleva, Lyudmila Chernaya 

Pages: 640 (typographic). Hardcover

Dimensions: 207x137x34 mm

Series: Classics Library