NP Life during Wartime

[Otto]

The Invention of Curried Sausage
by Uwe Timm

"This clever novel tells the story of how curried sausage (a popular German
street food) was created. The narrator is convinced that the delicacy was
invented in his native Hamburg sometime during or after World War II, not in
Berlin in the 1950s, as is commonly believed. His faint memories from
childhood lead him to Lena Bruckner, the curried-sausage street vendor of
his youth. He finds her living in a retirement home, and through a series of
interviews, she slowly reveals the story behind the creation of curried
sausage. And what a story it is! Weaving wartime intrigue, clandestine love
affairs, black-market subterfuge, and life during the Nazi era, Lena's story
traces the development of the sausage while simultaneously mapping the
effects of such diverse elements as war, love, and abandonment on the human
spirit. A best-seller in Germany, this highly entertaining, powerful work
will dazzle American readers." Kathleen Hughes

An ingenious, revealing, and charming tale about the invention of a popular
German sidewalk food by a woman who met, seduced, and held captive a
deserter in April, 1945, just before the war's end. The Invention of Curried
Sausage is an ingenious, revealing, and delightful novel about the invention
of a popular German sidewalk food. Uwe Timm has heard claims that currywurst
first appeared in Berlin in the 1950s, but he seems to recall having eaten
it much earlier, as a boy in his native Hamburg, at a stand owned and
operated by Lena Brucker. He decides to check it out. Although the discovery
of curried sausage is eventually explained, it is its prehistory - about how
Lena Brcker met, seduced and held captive a German deserter in Hamburg, in
April, 1945, just before the war's end-that is the tastiest part. Timm draws
gorgeous details from Lena's fine-grained recollections, and the pleasure
these provide her and the reader supply the tale's real charm.

"Here is what German author/narrator Uwe Timm uncovers about a popular
German sidewalk food, curried sausage. Convinced the delicacy did not
originate in Berlin, Timm tracks down its creator, one Lena Brucker, now
living in a retirement home. Thus the tale of how curried sausage came to be
is the romantic story of Lena Brucker's life."

About the Author
Uwe Timm was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1940. After apprenticing as a
furrier, Timm studied philosophy and philology in Paris and Munich. He is
the 1989 winner of the Munich Literary Prize.

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