"Manuela Draeger is one of French author Antoine Volodine's numerous heteronyms belonging to a community of imaginary authors that includes Lutz Bassmann and Elli Kronauer."--About the author.
Contents:
Bolcho pride -- Granny Holgolde's tale: The lamp -- Granny Holgolde's tale: The paper -- Liar's bridge -- Granny Holgolde's tale: The camp -- Adults -- Granny Holgolde's tale: The abyss -- My parents -- Granny Holgolde's tale: The arsenal -- Granny Holgolde's tale: The end -- Memories.
Summary:
In Manuela Draeger's poetic 'post-exotic' novel, a group of young leftists trapped in a burning building after one year's Bolcho Pride parade plunge back into their childhood memories, trading them with each other as their lives are engulfed in flames. They remember Granny Holgolde's stories of the elephant Marta Ashkarot as she travels through the Bardo, to find her home and be reincarnated again and again. They remember the Soviet folk singer Lyudmila Zykina and her melancholic, simple songs of unspeakable beauty. They remember the half-human birds Granny Holgolde called strange cormorants, the ones who knew how to live in fire, secrecy, and death, and as the flames get higher they hope to become them. Draeger, a heteronym for the acclaimed French writer Antoine Volodine, and a librarian in a dystopic prison camp, gives post-exoticism an element of tenderness, and a sense of nostalgia for children's tales, that is far less visible in the other authors' works. Eleven Sooty Dreams is her first book written for adults, a moving story of the constancy of brotherly, loving faithfulness.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.