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- Schöffling Verlag (Germany)
Read our sample translation of Stern
About the book
Hugo Stern has never succeeded in bonding with other people. An only child, he grew up alone with his mother. In one telling episode, when he is a student in London he befriends a Korean who never ever says anything – they go to the movies together and stare at the screen.
Back in the Netherlands, Stern marries. He and his wife have a baby who dies soon after birth and they adopt a Korean child, giving him the same forename as their own. The story reaches a climax when the son, who has turned eighteen, wants to visit his native country.
Stern is torn by separation anxiety, the memory of his friend in London who never answered his letters and his inability to press his child to his chest, all of which culminates in a heart-rending final scene at the airport.