To the unknown hero.
Subtitle: Translated from the German by Ralph Manheim.
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 1974
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 154
Other titles: The original title was "Dem unbekannten Sieger". The book appeared in 1969.
Description: This novel by the once highly famous German author Hans Erich Nossack is a gem for times of trouble. Nossack, 1901-1977, writes about a father son meeting where they discuss a revolution. Some man helped highly intellectual revolutionaries, who, alas, had no clue how to use a canon in around 1919^^. Ah, that? The man, passing by, says, and shows them how to shoot. "Where to?" They show him. "This window?". He does it, and the revolution begins... The father son discussion, decades later, tells you all about this revolution. It is  a highly intelligent novel with lots of surprises that gives a hint or many how to act in times of trouble when dictators or wanna-be dictators are endangering us. And this all in a wonderful novel. Nossack wrote in an "understated" way, so to speak, and by reading his books twice or more often you always learn something new. This is an underrated gem, highly recommended. I read the German original, and can just hope the American translation is as good as Nossack's German. He succeeds in giving the most "banal" every day words a shining, a new way to see the world. If you can find it second hand - get it.