Brodeck's Report by Philippe Claudel (Book Analysis) E-Book

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• Kategorie: Bildung
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• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 27

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Unlock the more straightforward side of Brodeck's Report with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!

This engaging summary presents an analysis of Brodeck's Report by Philippe Claudel, a deeply disturbing story about the depths humans will stoop to in order to erase difference. Brodeck, a concentration camp survivor, is tasked with writing a report to justify the murder of a strange man known as the Anderer. The man had only recently arrived in the village, but was feared for being too different. Claudel expertly interweaves the present-day investigation and Brodeck’s past experiences in a prison camp to highlight the importance of the past and, above all, of memory. Philippe Claudel is a writer and a professor of literature. He has also taught in prisons, and he says that it is this experience which has had the greatest impact on his writing. Brodeck’s Report is his fifth book, and was showered with awards in both his native France and in the English-speaking world; John Cullen received particular praise for his English translation of the novel.

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Leseprobe

Philippe Claudel

French writer and director

Born in Dombasle-sur-Meurthe (France) in 1962.Notable works:Grey Souls (2003), novel Monsieur Linh and His Child (2005), novelPetite fabrique des rêves et des réalités (“The Making of Dreams and Realities”, 2008), novel

Philippe Claudel is a French writer and director. He is also a senior lecturer at the University of Nancy and a professor at the European Audiovisual and Cinema Institute. He has taught prisoners and disabled people. He is also the author of more than 20 books, which have been translated into dozens of languages and won many awards, including Grey Souls, Monsieur Linhand His Child and Brodeck’s Report. Claudel’s first film, I’ve Loved You So Long, came out in 2008. The theme of war and its consequences can be found in several of his works.

Brodeck’s Report

A war memoir

Genre: novelReference edition: Claudel, P. (2010) Brodeck’s Report. Trans. Cullen, J. London: Quercus. 1st edition: 2007Themes: Second World War, murder, fear, madness, investigation, memoire

Brodeck’s Report was published in 2007. It is about a man named Brodeck, who lives in a remote village. One day, the only foreigner in the village is murdered by some of the other villagers. As Brodeck is the only one who both can type and has a typewriter, he is asked to write a precise, detailed report to prove that there was nothing illegal about the death. However, he was not there when it happened, and so he begins to gather information. The reader follows him in this task, which is broken up every so often by his memories of being a prisoner in a concentration camp during the Second World War (1939-1945). Brodeck has to write about the unspeakable and asks himself questions about the true face of human nature.

Summary

War wounds

Brodeck lives in a little mountain village with his family: his wife Emélia, their daughter Poupchette and Fédorine, an old woman who looked after him when he was a child. He met his wife while he was studying in the town of S. thanks to the residents of his village. At the time, they all clubbed together to send someone to university, and Brodeck was the most gifted.

Soon, rumours about the gathering of troops at the border began to circulate, and workers’ demonstrations broke out in town. However, Brodeck did not take part. One night, there was a riot: the shops belonging to the Fremdër (“foreigners”, “traitors” or “filth”) were vandalised. Brodeck even looked on, helpless and outraged, as an old man was killed. He then went to Emélia’s house to her to marry him, and the two escaped the town to take refuge in the village. As a result, he abandoned his studies.

Some time after start of the war, an enemy troop called the Fratergekeime