Nightfather
1997 Nominated

Nightfather

Translated from the Dutch
artwork-image

ABOUT
THE BOOK

The legacy of the Holocaust is passed on to a young girl through her father’s stories in this celebrated novel. “When I was in the camp,” her father’s stories always begin. Although she lives in the everyday world of school and friends, a daughter is compelled by love to enter her father’s harrowing world of hunger, death, and survival in the concentration camp. In a moving Afterword, the author sets the historical context for the novel and speaks directly about her own father, upon whom the novel is based. “An extraordinary novel written with passion, lucidity, and restraint” ( The Forward ).

Original title in Dutch Tralievader Uitgeverij Van Oorschot (1991)

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Carl
Friedman

Carl Friedman was born Caroline Friedman, in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. She is a novelist, short story writer, poet, journalist, and translator who has worked in Belgium and now lives in Amsterdam. Many of her works explore themes from the Holocaust. Friedman made her debut as a novelist in 1991 with Tralievader (Nightfather), which was adapted into a film in 1995. In 1993 she published Twee koffers vol (The Shovel and the Loom), a novel that in 1998 was made into the film Left Luggage.
Carl Friedman was born Caroline Friedman, in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. She is a novelist, short story writer, poet, journalist, and translator who has worked in Belgium and now lives in Amsterdam. Many of her works explore themes from the Holocaust. Friedman made her debut as a novelist in 1991 with Tralievader (Nightfather), which was adapted into a film in 1995. In 1993 she published Twee koffers vol (The Shovel and the Loom), a novel that in 1998 was made into the film Left Luggage.

ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Arnold
& Erica Pomerans

Arnold Julius Pomerans (27 April 1920 – 30 May 2005) was a German-born British translator.

Arnold Pomerans was born in Königsberg, Germany, on 27 April 1920 to a Jewish family. Because of growing antisemitism in Germany the family left for Yugoslavia and later South Africa. In 1948 Arnold Pomerans emigrated to England, where he became a full-time translator in the 1950s, after first working as a teacher.

He translated about two hundred works of fiction and non-fiction, selected from most European languages. Among the authors he translated are Louis de Broglie, Werner Heisenberg, Anne Frank, Sigmund Freud, Johan Huizinga, Jean Piaget, Jacques Presser and Jan Romein.His translation of George Grosz’s autobiography A Little Yes and a Big No earned him the 1983 Schlegel-Tieck Prize and in 1997 Pomerans was awarded the PEN Translation Prize for The Selected Letters of Vincent Van Gogh. In his obituary, he was called “one of Britain’s finest translators” by The Independent.

In 1956, Pomerans married Erica White and they moved to Polstead in Suffolk the following year. They carried out much of the translation work together. He died in Polstead of cancer on 30 May 2005, aged 85.

Arnold Julius Pomerans (27 April 1920 – 30 May 2005) was a German-born British translator.

Arnold Pomerans was born in Königsberg, Germany, on 27 April 1920 to a Jewish family. Because of growing antisemitism in Germany the family left for Yugoslavia and later South Africa. In 1948 Arnold Pomerans emigrated to England, where he became a full-time translator in the 1950s, after first working as a teacher.

He translated about two hundred works of fiction and non-fiction, selected from most European languages. Among the authors he translated are Louis de Broglie, Werner Heisenberg, Anne Frank, Sigmund Freud, Johan Huizinga, Jean Piaget, Jacques Presser and Jan Romein.His translation of George Grosz’s autobiography A Little Yes and a Big No earned him the 1983 Schlegel-Tieck Prize and in 1997 Pomerans was awarded the PEN Translation Prize for The Selected Letters of Vincent Van Gogh. In his obituary, he was called “one of Britain’s finest translators” by The Independent.

In 1956, Pomerans married Erica White and they moved to Polstead in Suffolk the following year. They carried out much of the translation work together. He died in Polstead of cancer on 30 May 2005, aged 85.

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